Some movement on Pennsylvania online gambling legalisation

The long-running debate on how the Pennsylvanian legislature is to fund a $2.2 billion deficit on this year’s already approved $32 billion state budget showed some movement Wednesday evening, when the state Senate tentatively agreed a measure that includes legalised online gambling and DFS among other gambling expansion elements.

Other possibilities in the Senate plan include online sales of tickets to certain Pennsylvania Lottery games and the establishment of gaming kiosks in the state’s major airports.

Encouraging reports also emerged suggesting that House lawmakers and Gov. Tom Wolf were close to agreement on their ideas, which include Internet-based games for Pennsylvania-based players and a new string of small, satellite casinos in smaller state markets.

However, media reports late Wednesday indicate that inexplicably there will be no further political activity this week on what is surely an urgent issue of getting House and Senate consensus on a final funding package.

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, told local media reporters: “The bill has been negotiated. It’s almost to the finish line. When the House comes back we can finish those negotiations and put it on the governor’s desk.”

The publication Pennlive speculated that the House hiatus may be due to political manoeuvring and differences on tax increases, or argument regarding the division of local share payments to casino host municipalities.

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