The governor of Puerto Rico signed a law to guarantee the pensions of retired police officers with funds from slot machines, complying with the demands of the Fiscal Oversight Board.
Puerto Rico.- Governor Pedro Pierluisi enacted House Bill 2190, which increases police pensions through revenue generated by gambling machines. The measure ensures that the pension reaches at least 50 percent of the officer's salary at the time of retirement.
The statute amended the "Gambling Machines Act" and the "Police Retirement Trust Fund Act" to achieve the guarantee of police retirement funding, adhering to the demands of the Fiscal Oversight Board (JSF), regarding the law passed last year.
In this regard, Governor Pierluisi stated: "Even amidst economic challenges and the demands of the JSF, we have managed to ensure that our police officers can receive, at least, a pension equivalent to 50 percent of their salary."
"This retirement benefit adds to the 30 percent increase in their salary that they received in 2019, their inclusion in social security, improvements in disability benefit plans, reconciliation and payment of accumulated debts, and other additional improvements," he added.
The measure, authored by José Rivera Madera and Rafael Hernández, both from the Popular Democratic Party (PPD), aims to regulate about 25,000 slot machines and modify the formula in which the money generated by these devices is distributed with the goal of nourishing the Police Retirement Trust Fund.
The initiative was approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives in the last days of the legislative session, after incorporating changes requested by the JSF, which had indicated its support as long as the agreements established by the parties were met.
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The Puerto Rico Gaming Commission will have 60 days to approve a regulation that establishes the procedure for granting the established licenses.
"With the signing of this project, and the enactment of the law, at the Gaming Commission we can begin the process to put into effect the regulation that will regulate the issuance, management, and oversight of licenses for gambling machines on route," expressed the interim director of the Gaming Commission, Juan Carlos Santaella.
The law also grants 180 days to those wholesale owners with active machine licenses who, at the beginning of the transition period according to the law, do not yet have the total number of machines they are entitled to, to pay the balance of the remaining licenses.
