Sixth Bill Pertaining To Online Poker Coming Forward In PennsylvaniaSeveral Senators Want I-Poker And 24/7 Alcohol Sales At Casinos |
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You can tell Pennsylvania has momentum going for legalizing and regulating online poker, as a sixth proposal this year that has provisions related to the web games was pitched on Wednesday.
In a memorandum from Pennsylvania Senators Kim Ward, Robert Tomlinson, Elder Vogel and Joseph Scarnati, the lawmakers said they will be introducing a bill containing numerous “gaming enhancements and reforms,” which includes letting the state’s 12 casinos offer online gambling.
“Existing Pennsylvania casinos that offer slot machine and table games would be eligible to offer Internet gaming to individual patrons that have registered and established an Internet gaming account and are physically present in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania while playing online,” they wrote in the Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda. “In addition, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs would be required to develop expanded compulsive and problem gambling programs specifically related to Internet gaming.”
Their forthcoming bill will also seek to allow casinos to serve alcohol 24/7.
“These enhancements and reforms are reflective of the challenges faced both in establishing and maintaining the viability of the Pennsylvania gaming industry in an increasingly competitive environment,” the lawmakers also wrote.
On Friday, a newspaper in Pennsylvania’s capital city published an op-ed calling for the state to regulate online gaming sites by legalizing the industry this summer.
A recent poll found roughly 60 percent of state voters support web poker regulation.
Five of the online gaming proposals seek to legalize and regulate the activity, while one of the measures is seeking to ban it. Sheldon Adelson has a casino in Pennsylvania.
The next steps for online poker in Pennsylvania are more hearings, with possible votes on a proposal. A bill would have to pass both the House and Senate and then be signed by the governor. Over in California, an I-poker bill has been put on hold until later this summer.
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