Ads warn of “casinos near churches”
Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson has launched a $1 million advertising campaign aimed at defeating legislation in the Pennsylvania State Assembly to expand gaming in the state, including the legalization and regulation of online gaming and various other expansion measures.
Adelson, who has long been a vocal opponent of online gambling, recharged the issue after an expected sale of LVS’ Sands Casino resort Bethlehem to MGM Resorts International apparently fell apart. In addition to iGaming, Sands opposes a plan to insert a provision in the expansion bill to allow video game terminals (VGTs) in bars and taverns and tablet gaming at airports.
The media campaign includes a commercial showing where VGTs could end up, warning that any liquor-licensed establishment, including some nursing homes, “could become a casino,” and suggesting that slots in neighborhood bars would effectively put “casinos” near schools and churches.
The operator is supporting a group called Pennsylvanians for Responsible Government, which is leading the campaign against VGTs.
“This proposal would destroy the brick-and-mortar casino industry and risk the nearly $1.4 billion in tax revenues that these establishments generate annually,” said Michael Bailey, a spokesman for the group, in an interview with the Allentown Morning Call. “Worse yet, because VGTs are designed to operate without employees, the 18,000 people casinos collectively employ in Pennsylvania will be put in serious jeopardy.”
Previously, Sands Bethlehem announced that it is putting a $90 million expansion on hold pending the outcome of the expansion bill. The state Senate recently passed a package that would legalize online gaming (with a 54 percent revenue tax), daily fantasy sports, and tablet gaming at airports, along with a replacement for the local community host fee struck down last year by the state Supreme Court.
The Senate bill does not include VGTs, but the bill is now before the state House, where several members are pushing to add the provision to the package to benefit their districts.
The claims in the group’s ads were quickly repudiated by the House provision’s sponsor, and by the Pennsylvania Tavern Association, which supports VGTs. “They are trying to create a boogieman, and I’m not interested in playing that game,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mark Mustio, told the Morning Call.
“We don’t have $1 million to fight Sands, but we have friends in the Senate and House,” Tavern Association President Tom Boock, who owns the Cottage Pub and Restaurant in Chambersburg, told the newspaper. “We’re not just going to back down to these billionaire casino owners.”
Meanwhile, a group of Philadelphia-area state senators is promoting an addition to the gaming bill that would divert around $2 million annually from casino revenues for city economic development programs. This would be in addition to the host fee, which pumps $10 million annually from revenues into local coffers.
