Op-Ed: Internet Poker 'A Resource Pennsylvania Should Mine Now'Newspaper In Harrisburg Calls For Legalization ASAP |
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A newspaper in Pennsylvania’s capital city is calling for lawmakers to legalize and regulate online gaming. The Patriot-News posted an op-ed Friday detailing how the state’s current budget issues is a strong reason for online poker legalization this summer.
The piece came just days before lawmakers in the state’s House Gaming Oversight Committee were scheduled to meet on June 2 (today) to talk about a “summary of previous hearings,” according to the committee’s website. In April, the House Gaming Oversight Committee held a robust hearing on one of the online poker proposals currenly on the table. The bill was not voted on during that hearing, however.
“Pennsylvania legislators should pass an online gaming bill in June both because the state needs to close a seemingly insurmountable budget gap in the next fiscal year, and, simply, because it can,” the editorial board wrote. The state faces an estimated $2 billion general fund deficit.
Pennsylvania has 12 casinos and a gambling market worth roughly $3 billion annually, according to the American Gaming Association. Internet gaming takes some time to take off, with neighboring New Jersey being the example of that, so the web games aren’t expected to solve the budget issues by themselves, but they can be part of the equation.
According to another op-ed on PennLive.com, written by two lawmakers pushing online poker legislation in the state, the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee has estimated that online gaming could generate $307 million in revenue for Pennsylvania casinos. Revenues would be taxed heavily in the state, with estimates of $113 million in taxes annually.
Pennsylvania also concluded in a study that regulated online poker could be worth up to $129 million annually once it reaches maturation. That’d be about five times as large as New Jersey’s.
The Patriot-News editorial board highlighted that state’s unwillingness toward other tax revenue streams, which should make online gaming even more attractive.
As long as legislators remain disinterested in a severance tax on natural gas extraction, no large pools of cash wait to be tapped for the General Fund. If Pennsylvania continues to refuse to realize tax revenue on a finite resource, one for which significant profits are earned daily by companies outside the state, it must find revenue elsewhere. Online gaming is a resource Pennsylvania should mine now.
While several online gaming bills sit in the Pennsylvania House, a lawmaker in the Senate has crafted his own approach to the issue. However, the bill from Rep. John Payne, chairman of the House Gaming Oversight Committee, is widely considered the likely vehicle for Pennsylvania regulated web gaming. Payne told Card Player earlier this year that there is “no guarantee” for online poker legalization this year, but he wasn’t told not to push it at this time.
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