Pennsylvania House Passes Online Casino LegislationLegislation Moves To Senate For Discussion |
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Pennsylvania’s House has passed a bill to legalize and regulate real-money online casinos, which would include Internet poker, within the state’s borders.
The 114-85 vote happened Tuesday, after months of committee work.
The legislation moves to the Senate for consideration, and, if successful there, would head to the desk of Gov. Tom Wolf for possible signature. Pennsylvania has been considering online gambling for the past several years. According to Pennsylvania Rep. John Payne, sponsor of the online gambling bill, there has been about 50 meetings and hearings for online gaming over just the past year and a half. The bill was rejected by the House in late May.
The legislation passed without a provision that would have allowed slot machines throughout the state. The brick-and-mortar casinos were opposed to that provision. As an apparent compromise, slots would be allowed at airpots and off-racetrack betting parlors.
A matured Keystone State online gambling market has been estimated at $300 million a year, which would add about 10 percent to the state’s already-existing casino gambling market. Only the state’s 12 brick-and-mortar casinos could operate the online casinos, but they would be allowed to partner with technology firms, including international poker sites, for the games.
Pennsylvania has a live poker market worth about $60 million annually.
The online casinos would be taxed at a 16-percent rate, and the state would also take in tens of millions of dollars in licensing fees, depending on the number of casinos interested in the space.
In addition to online casinos, the bill would allow the state to regulate daily fantasy sports gambling sites and get five percent of the revenue. The contests would be limited to pro sports.
If it legalizes online gaming, Pennsylvania would become just the fourth state in the country to do so. The legislation would not prohibit the state from sharing liquidity with another state. Only Nevada and Delaware have partnered for online poker so far.
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