Pennsylvania Inches Closer To Regulated Online PokerState Holds Another Robust Online Gaming Hearing |
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On Wednesday, Pennsylvania lawmakers held a two-hour long hearing featuring testimony from the state’s gaming regulators on the online gaming topic.
The Senate Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee, chaired by Sen. Kim Ward, author of online gaming proposal SB900, had its second Internet betting hearing in as many weeks. The purpose was to further discuss how online gaming should be implemented. The momentum is building in the Keystone State.
Sen. Ward’s bill is one of several on the table that aim to legalize and regulate online gaming. Hers, along with Rep. John Payne’s online poker proposal in the House, are likely the two front-runners to be the vehicle to get the games legalized.
“We would be ready to go quickly” if the state legalized online gaming, the Gaming Control Board said in a response to a question posed by Sen. Ward. It would take nine to 12 months before online gaming launches, after the state approved the activity.
Gaming Control Board Executive Director Kevin O’Toole testified that the state should be able to enter into interstate compacts for online gaming, like what Nevada and Delaware did.
O’Toole pointed out that Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware do not require in-person online gaming account registration. His testimony seemed to suggest that regulators agree with this model. In-person registration at a brick-and-mortar casino should be an option for a customer, but not the only way to create an online gaming account, according to the testimony. Lawmakers are currently considering a provision pertaining to this important micro-issue.
According to O’Toole, online gaming revenue in Pennsylvania could actually be about the same as New Jersey not long after the latter launched its games. New Jersey had about $120 million in overall I-gambling revenue in year one. “Expectation should not be too high at the roll-out,” O’Toole said.
Pennsylvania concluded in a past study that regulated online poker could be worth up to $129 million annually once it reaches maturation. It also found that house-banked online casino games could reach $178 million annually under the same conditions. Those revenues would add roughly 10 percent to the state’s casino gambling market, worth around $3 billion annually. Gaming revenues haven’t grown for the past two years in Pennsylvania.
The Gaming Control Board said that online gaming can be complementary to existing brick-and-mortar casinos. This cannibalization question comes up often in online gaming hearings.
“The baby boomer population is declining…and [millennials] are accustomed to doing everything on their computers and phones…and casinos are trying to market to that population,” the Gaming Control Board added about the necessity of online gaming to keep Pennsylvania’s casino industry competitive in the region.
Sen. Ward asked about whether Pennsylvania would be grandfathered in if the federal government enacted a ban on online gaming. The Gaming Control Board said it depends on the language of the federal bill. Odds currently are long for an online gaming ban—known as the Restoration of America’s Wire Act—coming from Capitol Hill.
There likely won’t be “any significant impact” on the state’s horse racing industry from online gaming, according to Kevin Kile, director of racetrack gaming for the Gaming Control Board. Sen. Ward’s 32-page bill is a gambling reform package that is looking at online gaming as just one way to help the state’s casino industry.
No vote was held on SB900 on Wednesday.
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