iGambling bill HB 649<\/a> was still on the table. The proposed amendment in HB 1925 was essentially Payne’s bill, but mirrored.<\/p>\nThe House chamber will reconvene on June 6 for 17 final scheduled session days for the 2016 fiscal year. That means the House will be scrambling to pass a 2017 budget to the state Senate.<\/p>\n
However, among the 52 bills on the calendar for the remaining sessions is HB 649.<\/p>\n
“We wanted to kind of test it out in May,” State House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R-District 62) told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s<\/em> Karen Langley. “When we come back in June it will be full guns a-blazing trying to get a budget done, and that will be part of that process.”<\/p>\nWeighing Online Gaming Against Raising Taxes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\u00a0<\/strong>If you’re wondering why Republicans in Pennsylvania, typically the party more opposed to expanding gambling, would want online gaming to be considered in the Keystone State, the answer is rather simple: it’s better than raising taxes.<\/p>\n\n
For Pennsylvanians, it seems like yesterday that the state legislature was trying to come to grips with first-term Governor Tom Wolf (D) on a budget. And that’s because it was just March when the 2015-2016 budget was finally passed into law, a full 267 days late.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Wolf actually never even signed that budget, but simply allowed it to become law without his John Hancock.<\/p>\n
And now, it’s d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu in Harrisburg.<\/p>\n
Wolf wants to continue spending more money that the state doesn’t have and is recommending the Republican-controlled legislature approve some sort of tax increase to bridge a $1 billion budget gap, which Wolf largely blames on pensions.<\/p>\n
Payne, along with other Pennsylvania conservatives, would like to see revenues from the expansion of gaming to the Internet play a role in funding Wolf’s ballooning expenditures.<\/p>\n
Gambling on the Outcome<\/strong><\/h2>\nIn addition to considering online gambling, the Pennsylvania House is also expected to once again deliberate whether to allow airports and off-track betting facilities to offer slot machines. Bars and truck stops could also be authorized to run video lottery terminals.<\/p>\n
Wolf’s staff has suggested that the governor wouldn’t be opposed to signing online gaming legislation, should the legislature also approve new revenue sources: meaning, in short, more taxes.<\/p>\n
Wolf and the Pennsylvania General Assembly haven’t exactly played nice since the governor came to Harrisburg in 2015.<\/p>\n
It’s more than possible that Wolf would veto an Internet\u00a0bill, if it doesn’t come to his desk with accompanying tax increase measures. To override Wolf’s veto, two-thirds support of both the state House and Senate would be required.<\/strong><\/p>\nIf there’s one thing that the odds seem to favor, it’s that the talks beginning on June 6 will persist for many weeks, if not months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pennsylvania online gambling will be getting another in the state legislature when the Keystone State’s budget talks resume on June 6. In late May, a proposed amendment was added to House Bill 1925 that would have authorized Internet gaming. The amendment was overwhelmingly shot down and thus stripped from the legislative bill that covered how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":36369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,13],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Pennsylvania Online Gambling Target of Conservatives Legislature<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n