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Pennsylvania Moves To Legalize Online Gambling

Pennsylvania Moves To Legalize Online Gambling

Added: June 19, 2015

Pennsylvania could well be the next American state to have legalized and regulated online gambling. The Bill SB 900 was introduced in the state Senate earlier this week by Kim Ward, Robert Tomlinson, Elder Vogel and Joseph Scarnati, who are credible and powerful voices. Earlier Representative John Payne had introduced Bill HB 649 on the same issue in the House. SB 900 seeks to allow casinos to offer online gambling to players who live 20 miles away.

A hearing to discuss SB 900 has already taken place in the Pennsylvania Senate Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee. Several positives came from the hearing, the most important of which was the testimony of Kevin O'Toole, the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB). He averred that the board was fully capable to license and regulate intrastate online gambling in Pennsylvania. He added that the interests of the players would be completely safeguarded.

O’Toole had a number of suggestions for the senators to ponder over. He advised that the final bill should include a mandate for PGCB to negotiate shared player pools with other U.S. states that have legalized online gambling in order to have more liquidity that would lead to greater viability. The duration of licenses should be increased from 3 years to 5 years. PGCB should be allowed to outsource slots testing to independent laboratories. O’Toole pointed out that the in-person registration of players incorporated in the SB900 proposal would create enforcement problems and that the other legalized states allow online registration instead. He cautioned that online gambling needs time to grow in revenue terms and advised legislators not to start with expectations that are too high. O’Toole confirmed that a regulatory regime could be set up within 12 months from the necessary legislation being passed.

R. Douglas Sherman, chief counsel for PGCB, briefed senators on the various laws surrounding online gambling in the United States. He pointed out that intrastate online gambling was permissible. But he cautioned that if the attempts seeking a blanket ban on online gambling succeeded there would be problems. Sherman observed that the majority of Pennsylvania's land casinos already operate free play gaming websites.

Dr. Ken Martz, a problem gambling expert with the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Problems, briefed the committee on addictive behavior. He felt that proposed annual problem gambling contributions from operators of $150,000 each was not sufficient. A more hostile approach was taken by Senator Tomlinson, who claimed that an unnamed Pennsylvania land casino has lost 20% of its player base to legalized online gambling in New Jersey. However, he was unable to give sources or other evidence.