Pennsylvania senate shows little appetite for online gambling legalisation

With just 10 days to go to the next and final 2016 gathering of the Pennsylvania Senate on November 15, the chances of an online gambling legalisation bill passing appear to be increasingly remote.

Our readers will recall that last week Our readers may recall that last week the Senate sent bill H 1887 – a measure designed to address a tax fix ordered by the state Supreme Court – to the House for approval.

However, in doing so the senators completely ignored bill HB2150, an omnibus gambling measure that includes the legalisation of internet gambling and daily fantasy sports, which the House had approved and sent to the Senate in June this year.

The House reacted by batting H 1887 back to the Senate, approving the measure…but with the addition of an amendment introducing the legalisation language taken from HB2150 as lawmakers tried another tack to get the Senate to move on the issue.

Reports from the state capital indicate that senators are not necessarily opposed to the legalisation of online gambling, and that the resistance to HB2150 stems from concerns regarding the expansion of slots in the physical environment (also contained in the omnibus bill).

On Thursday Sen. Jake Corman, the state Senate majority leader, dampened hopes for a last-minute legalisation move when he told local media:

“We told the House before, we don’t have consensus on I-gaming, yet they chose to load it into the host fee bill, That basically killed it for this session.”

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