Lawmakers upping the stakes on casino gambling
Font size: [A] [A] [A]
e-mail this
share thisThe state House and Senate failed to agree on a bill to vastly expand casino gambling in Pennsylvania before heading home for the holiday recess. Now the only sure bet is that they will put together a giveaway for the casino industry.
Each chamber passed a separate version of a bill to allow table games at the state's casinos, which now are limited to slot machines.
Lawmakers and Gov. Ed Rendell adopted a budget for the current fiscal year that relies on at least $250 million in new revenue from the addition of table games at casinos. If the budget is to be balanced by the end of the fiscal year in July, specific legislation must be adopted.
Thus, the dispute between the chambers is over geographic and narrow-interest politics, rather than on the big questions involving the vast expansion of gambling.
A key difference, for example, is that the House included a provision to increase the number of casinos statewide from 14 to 15. That was meant to draw the votes of representatives from districts that then would be in play for the 15th casino.
The Senate altered that to expand bidding for the 14th casino license, which has not yet been awarded.
And House and Senate members disagree on the distribution of casino funds to narrow interests, including the Commonwealth Medical College in Scranton, which contradicts the original casino law's requirement that most of the money go to local property tax relief.
And ever since the inclusion of table games in the new budget, the casino industry has been lobbying hard and effectively to make sure that the expansion is a true windfall for the industry rather than taxpayers.
The House bill, for example, places the table game license price at $16 million and the state tax on the table game take at 14 percent. Both figures are roughly what the industry has advocated and substantially below other estimates of their value.
On the up side, the bills agree on the need to somewhat toughen casino regulation by precluding political contributions by casino executives and lengthening to two years the period that must pass before a former Gaming Control Board employee takes a job in the industry.
But that is eclipsed by a truly awful provision in the House bill that would allow casinos to grant house credit to gamblers for table games and slots. Now, players are prohibited from using such credit. If that provision becomes law, the social impact of gambling is likely to escalate as casinos pursue debts rung up by players through easy credit.
Any doubt about the increasing impact should be dispelled by the state government itself. In just over five years, Pennsylvania has gone from a non-gambling state to one heavily dependent on an ever-growing cut of the vigorish.
Be the first to comment on this article!