The Pennsylvania House Appropriations Committee voted on Monday in favor of a budget plan for the next calendar year that includes a provision for the legalization of online gambling within the state’s borders as a source of much-needed revenue.
Local media reported that under the proposed budget plan, the amount of $120 million in Internet gaming revenue would annually be contributed to the state and the additional amount of $24 million would come from related license fees.
However, the state Senate does not seem to be on the same page as it proposed a separate budget plan that was mostly concerned with expenditures. Here it is important to note that sponsors of the proposal have not pointed to any potential revenue sources yet.
Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman commented that his colleagues are not likely to support any gambling expansion or the legalization of online gambling at this point. The senator said that there simply would not be enough votes in favor of that major step.
Pennsylvania legislators have been discussing next year’s budget for months now and no significant progress has been made so far. However, they need to eventually find sources of revenue and they need to do that quickly. And as its seems, online gaming seems to be among the options considered for generating more revenue that would meet expenditures.
Advocates of Internet gambling enjoyed a small victory last month as the House Gaming Oversight Committee voted in favor of the proposed HB 649, a bill sponsored by Committee Chairman Rep. John Payne that is concerned with legalization of online gaming. Yet, it is still unclear whether the entire bill accompanied the budget plan that was voted on on Monday.
The said plan is expected to be voted today by the full House. However, online gambling cannot be included as part of next year’s budget without an approval from the Senate. In addition to this, local media reported that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is more supportive of the other budget plan – the one proposed by the Senate. The two proposals have a $500-million difference regarding expenditures. If approved, the plan proposed by the Senate is expected to pay out more.
Rep. Payne told media that he is determined to continue lobbying for the legalization of online gambling in 2016, if HB 649 does not get the necessary approval by the end of the year.
