Anti-Online Gaming Bill Hits Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania land based casino industry has, since its inception in 2006 provided a solid amount of tax revenue for the state, and although profits have dropped a little since peaking at $3.16 billion in 2012, it's a going concern that's valuable to both the state and to those that are employed within the industry. It's always been thought that regarding Pennsylvania online gambling, it was a case of wait and see, in particular, wait and see what pans out in other US states that license and regulate real money online gambling such as New Jersey and Nevada, and the support for the introduction of online poker and casinos is obvious as in 2015 alone a total of 3 bills for the introduction of online gaming have been presented to the House of Representatives.

There is always someone with other plans however and in this case it's State Representative Thomas Murt who has put forward a Pennsylvania anti online gaming bill, a bill that's pretty straightforward in its wording, with one small part proposing that, "No individual or entity shall solicit, invite, collect or accept cash or any other form of currency through the Internet for the purposes of wagering or betting." So that makes that pretty clear then.

There is however some good news in that this particular bill is likely to fail. The bill is similar to one that failed in 2013 and added to the fact that there are 3 bills currently in circulation all for the introduction of online gaming in Pennsylvania then it surely has little hope. The plain fact of the matter is that the casino industry in the state is successful, in fact so successful that even though it's less than a decade old it has already overtaken that of New Jersey to become the second biggest casino industry in the US. Online gaming advocate Tina Davis sums things up when she says, "A responsible internet gaming system must be created in order to protect Pennsylvanians and the success of the established gaming industry in the Commonwealth, which has generated more than $7 billion in state tax revenue, and created more than 16,000 jobs statewide."