A new gambling expansion bill, with iGaming provisions tacked onto it, has been officially introduced to the Pennsylvania Legislature after two House Representatives posted last week a co-sponsorship memorandum.
The latest expansion legislative piece is sponsored by Rep. George Dunbar, Rep. Rosita Youngblood, and several other legislators from the state’s House of Representatives.
The new bill, similarly to others before it, aims at promoting statewide gambling expansion as a means for the addition of much-needed revenue for the Pennsylvania budget. Among other things, the more than 200-page proposal contains provisions for the legalization and regulation of online gambling and daily fantasy sports contests, and the addition of slot machines at certain airports and other designated facilities around the state.
The bill’s sponsors have also provided a possible solution to the host communities tax issue that emerged last year. As previously reported by Casino News Daily, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling voided a tax agreement that required most of the state’s casinos to pay a certain tax on slots revenue to their host municipalities.
A permanent solution to the issue has been sought since then but without much success. Under Rep. Dunbar and Rep. Youngblood’s bill, Category 1 and Category 2 casinos around the state will have to annually pay a license fee for the right to operate slot machines.
Pennsylvania’s Latest Online Gambling Legalization Effort
Online gambling has been a particularly hot topic in the state Legislature for the past year. Several proposals have been put up for discussion and one of them even survived a House vote in late 2016. However, the bill had to be voted on by the Senate and no such vote occurred by the end of the year.
It seems that legislators are more than willing to take off from where their colleagues left off last year. Apart from the numerous other provisions in their omnibus gambling bill, Rep. Dunbar and Rep. Youngblood had also dwelt upon how iGaming would be regulated and taxed, if legalized.
Under the legislative piece, online gaming licensees will have to pay a one-time $8-million fee, and a $2-million fee will be required from interested operators. To have their licenses renewed, licensees will have to pay a renewal fee of $250,000 and operators will have to pay a $100,000 such fee. Operators will also be taxed at 14% on full-year gross gaming revenue.
It can be said Pennsylvania has never been so close to legalizing online gambling and thus becoming the fourth US state to provide this type of gambling offering. And hopes for the upcoming iGaming legalization were further spurred by recent comments by state Governor Tom Wolf.
Gov. Wolf said earlier this week in his budget plan address to the Pennsylvania General Assembly that his office expects $250 million being generated for the state budget from gambling expansion. In other words, the state’s highest official may possibly support lawmakers’ efforts to bring regulated online gambling, provided that the move benefits the budget.
