Two Pennsylvania senators representing Lancaster County’s rural Amish country have succeeded in prompting approval by the full state Senate of a bill that would allow the county’s 60 conservative municipalities to opt out of allowing truck-stop video gaming terminals in their communities.
The bill, sponsored by state Senators Scott Martin and Ryan Aument, would fill a perceived gap in the massive gaming expansion law passed in late 2017, which contains a provision allowing communities to opt out of allowing Category 4 mini-casinos, but not truck-stop gaming.
The law as enacted permits locations that meet the qualifications of a truck stop to offer up to five VGTs each. Only municipalities in counties that host a stand-alone casino or racino may vote to ban the machines.
Every one of the 60 municipalities in Lancaster, the center of Pennsylvania’s religious Amish and Mennonite communities, voted to ban mini-casinos. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has given preliminary approval to seven VGT applications in six counties. Five of those approvals have been issued for truck stops in Lancaster County, which does not host a traditional casino.
One of those approvals, for a Rutter’s convenience store and truck stop in the borough of Strasburg, is the subject of a lawsuit from Rutters, after local officials changed zoning laws so as to disqualify the location as an eligible truck stop.
“We are not in favor of the video gaming terminals, but that (decision) has been taken away from our hands,” commented Strasburg Mayor Bruce Ryder to Lancaster Online. “It was written in such a way that municipalities really have no say.”
Strasburg has counted its rural Amish community as one of its biggest tourist draws, including as a key filming location for the 1985 film Witness. Harrison Ford starred as a Philadelphia detective posing as an Amish man to protect a child who witnessed a murder.
The new bill would give communities 60 days after a VGT approval to ban the machines through a simple majority vote. “Citizens should have a voice in the gambling debate, which is why we sought to restore the principle of local control,” bill sponsor Martin told the PlayPennsylvania news site.
The bill now goes to the state House, and if passed, on to Governor Tom Wolf, who has remained quiet on the measure but is expected to either sign it or allow it to become law with no action on his part, according to PlayPennsylvania.
