Pennsylvania online gambling is still in doldrums and the clouds are not yet clear. It has been a long game for online gambling industry to wait and there seems to be no end to it and even now the future appears to be shaky. However Pennsylvania’s online gambling legislative hopes aren’t dead but a queue of expectant undertakers has formed just outside the door. Following the lead of Delaware, New Jersey, Illinois, New York, California, Massachusetts and several other states, even Pennsylvania legislature introduced House Bill 1235, which would effectively legalize online gambling within the Commonwealth’s borders. And this Tuesday saw Pennsylvania state legislature conclude what was supposed to be its final day of sitting before the November 8 election but the sad part was that there was no action taken on the online gambling and daily fantasy sports bill which the House of Representatives approved in June.
In a move to temporarily restore funding that local municipalities lost last month when the state Supreme Court struck down a local slots tax as unconstitutional on Tuesday the state Senate approved quick fix legislation. However even after this the State denied to add online gambling to this bill which didn’t matter as it was clear that the House never got around to passing the Senate bill on Wednesday. So, the future of online gambling is still unclear within the state and The House has announced that it would reconvene at 9am on Thursday where there is a slim open possibility of any action on the gaming issues. In addition to that the House has two more remaining sessions scheduled for Nov 14 & 15 while the Senate will meet on Nov.16. As per inputs shared by few state reps with the local media however states that the chances of gaming issues to be discussed during this session is bleak and now this can only be discussed in the next legislative sessions which commences in January.
So when this discussion comes up in the next legislative session it will brand new legislature whose make up and intentions cannot be guessed at this time. But one thing is for sure that the Pennsylvania’s online gambling champion, Rep. John Payne, won’t be part of it as the veteran lawmaker is retiring. On Wednesday Gambling Compliance scribe Sara Friedman reported that “nine of Pennsylvania’s 12 casino operators had addressed a letter to the House and Senate leadership expressing their opposition to having to pay a new local share tax to replace the old plan the Supremes struck down.”
