As state senators in Pennsylvania reconvene today, one of the most pressing issues before them is legalization of online gaming.
The state House of Representatives passed a gaming reform package in July that would authorize a complete slate of online casino games and poker with a 14 percent tax to the state. Both the House and Senate passed a state budget, signed by Governor Tom Wolf, that includes online gaming taxes as part of the projected revenue.
The measure, however, stalled in the state Senate and met resistance from Wolf—mainly because of objections to a package of other gambling reforms added to the iGaming bill that originally was sponsored by Rep. John Payne, the chairman of the House Gaming Oversight Committee who has championed iGaming for the past two years.
The measure ultimately passed by the House includes authorization of video gaming terminals at airports and off-track betting facilities and lifts restrictions on resort-class casinos for entry fees. A controversial provision to legalize video gaming terminals at bar and social clubs was removed.
The state Senate now has a narrow window if iGaming is to pass before the national elections. Including today, the chamber has only a total of nine working days before the election, plus two days in November, to pass the current iGaming legislation.
Many expect the senators to accomplish this easily if the extra gambling provisions are removed, and Wolf is expected to sign a straight iGaming bill into law. However, if passage can’t be achieved by the end of the current session on November 15, barring a special session, the issue would be pushed to early 2017.
Many see that as a challenge to quick passage, as House iGaming champion Payne is retiring in November, and the new legislature would have to start from scratch with new iGaming legislation—including possible return of the controversial VGT issue and other roadblocks.
“In January, we will have a brand new legislature—new house members and maybe new senate members,” said Pennsylvania Rep. Rosita Youngblood in an interview with Online Poker Report. “We will definitely have two new chairmen of the House Gaming Oversight Committee. So we have to start the whole process from scratch. That lends to it additional delays in getting something passed, and with $100 million on the line, that’s a risk we cannot take.”
Any measure passed by the Senate would have to go back to the state House for a conference committee, with a final vote by both chambers on a consensus bill to send for Wolf’s signature.
