On Wednesday, the state of Pennsylvania held a hearing, one of many, to take place on the subject of gambling. Focusing on online gambling, the Community, Economic, and Recreational Development Committee met just two days ago to discuss aspects of the state’s gambling industry in front of the state Senate.
The hearing, which can be found in summary at USPoker, saw 11 representatives, each from a land based casino in Pennsylvania, giving a testimony as to the issues of gaming currently in the state. This included such topics of gaming expansion to video game terminals and online gambling.
Under discussion specifically was the bill recently introduced by Senator Kim Ward and fellow Senator co-sponsors. The bill, titled SB900, would give casinos with table game and slot gaming licenses the opportunity to open an online gambling site, by paying a fee of $10 million. The operator would then have a license which would be valid for five years.
This bill is free of bad actor clauses which means that sites that have been under scrutiny by other states would be allowed to operate within the state. Such as PokerStars, a hot topic of debate when it comes to online gambling talks in the state of California.
Showing support for iGaming was such industry leaders as Penn National’s Eric Schippers. During the hearing, Schippers stated that online gaming would be a vital tool for the casinos in Pennsylvania and would not be an option that would cannibalize the brick-and-mortar casinos. Schippers also made mention of SB900 and how the tax rate was quite high, calling for a 14% tariff to be placed on gaming with a $5 million licensing fee, the amounts set in the bill created by John Payne in his proposed online gambling legislation.
SB 900 also calls for gamers to create online poker accounts in person at the land-based casino connected to the online gaming site. The same language can be found in AB9, the bill created by Assemblyman Mike Gatto for California. This type of restriction certainly defeats the purpose of being able to play online.
While many representatives speaking on the subject of iGaming in Pennsylvania spoke in support, there were those opposed in attendance. Surprise, surprise a representative of the Sands Bethlehem, owned by Sheldon Adelson, showed up in opposition. The representative, Mark Juliano, stated that the introduction of online gambling would be detrimental to the land based casinos of the state, though there are studies that prove otherwise.
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