MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1998 Regular Session

To: Universities and Colleges

By: Senator(s) Ferris

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 75-76-34, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO AUTHORIZE THE PUBLIC COMMUNITY/JUNIOR COLLEGES TO OFFER LIMITED GAMING-RELATED COURSES AND NOT BE SUBJECT TO REGULATION BY THE MISSISSIPPI GAMING COMMISSION; TO AMEND SECTIONS 37-29-1 AND 37-29-63, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CONFORM TO THE PROVISIONS OF THIS ACT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.  

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 75-76-34, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

75-76-34. (1) Except as otherwise provided herein, the Mississippi Gaming Commission is authorized to regulate all schools or training institutions that teach or train gaming employees. Such schools shall only be located in counties where gaming is legal aboard a cruise vessel or vessel or in counties where cruise vessels were legally operating out of a port at the time of passage of the Mississippi Gaming Control Act pursuant to Section 19-3-79, unless the schools, courses or training is offered by a public community/junior college. No such school shall be located on publicly owned property unless the property is under the jurisdiction of a public community/junior college, and no public school shall teach or train persons to be gaming dealers. The gaming activities of schools or training institutions regulated by the commission, and those excepted from such regulation as provided herein, shall be deemed to be legal under the laws of the State of Mississippi. Any person desiring to operate a school or training institution must file a license application with the executive director to be licensed by the commission.

(2) The commission may adopt regulations it deems necessary to regulate schools and training institutions. Public community/junior colleges are not subject to regulation of the commission for the purposes of this section. These regulations shall, without limiting the general powers of the commission, include the following:

(a) Prescribing the method and form of application which any applicant for a school or training institution must follow and complete before consideration of his application by the executive director or commission.

(b) Prescribing the information to be furnished by the applicant relating to his employees.

(c) Requiring fingerprinting of the applicant, employees and students of the school or institution or other methods of identification and the forwarding of all fingerprints taken pursuant to regulation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

(d) Requiring any applicant to pay all or part of the fees and costs of investigation of the applicant as may be determined by the commission.

(e) Prescribing the manner and method of collection and payment of fees and costs and issuance of licenses to schools or training institutions.

(f) Prescribing under what conditions a licensee authorized by this section may be deemed subject to revocation or suspension of his license.

(g) Defining the curriculum of the school or training institution, the games and devices permitted, the use of tokens only for instruction purposes, and the method of operation of games and devices.

(h) Requiring the applicant to submit its location of the school or training institution, which shall be at least four hundred (400) feet from any church, school, kindergarten or funeral home. However, within an area zoned commercial or business, the minimum distance shall not be less than one hundred (100) feet.

(i) Requiring that all employees and students of the school or training institution be at least twenty-one (21) years of age and be a resident of the State of Mississippi.

(j) Requiring all employees and students of the school or training institution to wear identification cards issued by the commission while on the premises of the school or training institution.

(k) Requiring the commission to investigate each applicant, employee and student and determine that the individual does not fall within any one (1) of the following categories:

(i) Is under indictment for, or has been convicted in any court of, a felony;

(ii) Is a fugitive from justice;

(iii) Is an unlawful user of any controlled substance, is addicted to any controlled substance or alcoholic beverage, or is an habitual drunkard;

(iv) Is a mental defective, has been committed to a mental institution, or has been voluntarily committed to a mental institution on more than one (1) occasion;

(v) Has been discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions; or

(vi) Has been found at any time by the executive director or commission to have falsified any information.

SECTION 2. Section 37-29-1, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

37-29-1. The creation, establishment, maintenance and operation of junior colleges is authorized. Until May 1, 1996, they shall offer to students, who have completed not less than seventeen (17) high school units, courses correlated to those of senior colleges or professional schools. From and after May 1, 1996, junior colleges shall offer to students who have completed not less than nineteen (19) high school units, courses correlated to those of senior colleges or professional schools. Subject to the provisions of Section 75-76-34, they shall offer education and training preparatory for occupations such as agriculture, industry, business, homemaking and for other occupations on the semi-professional and vocational-technical level. They may offer courses and services to students regardless of their previous educational attainment or further academic plans.

In addition to the foregoing the junior colleges shall provide, through courses or other acceptable educational measures, the general education necessary to individuals and groups which will tend to make them capable of living satisfactory lives consistent with the ideals of a democratic society.

SECTION 3. Section 37-29-63, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

37-29-63. The president of any junior college shall have the power to recommend to the board of trustees all teachers to be employed in the district. He may remove or suspend any member of the faculty subject to the approval of the trustees. He shall be the general manager of all fiscal and administrative affairs of the district with full authority to select, direct, employ and discharge any and all employees other than teachers; however, the board may make provisions and establish policies for leave for faculty members and other key personnel.

The president shall have the authority, subject to the provisions of Section 75-76-34 and Sections 37-29-1 through 37-29-273 and the approval of the trustees, to arrange and survey courses of study, fix schedules, and establish and enforce rules and discipline for the governing of teachers and students. He shall be the general custodian of the property of the district.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 1998.