Pennsylvania State Senator Sean Wiley recently announced that he will soon be submitting a new bill related to both online and off-line gambling. The bill aims to make some intriguing changes to the current gambling policies.
This week, USPoker offered a detailed summary of what the bill would mean for the state.
Legalizing Online Poker
The first major policy change included in the bill involves legalizing online poker. However, Sen. Wiley is only proposing to legalize poker and not any other casino games. Online licensing would cost casinos $500,000, and would be taxed at 36%. The money generated from online poker revenue would provide the racing industry with 2% of the revenue for promotions, and the remainder would fund school property tax freeze for senior citizens.
The goal would be to introduce online poker on January 1, 2017.
Changes To Live Casinos
Another major provision in the bill is a seven-year moratorium for new gaming licenses in the State of Pennsylvania. The goal of the moratorium would be to allow both casinos, and the gambling market as a whole, time to mature. The bill also has a provision allowing casino owners to own more than one casino in the state. They currently are not able to own more than one and one-third of a Pennsylvania casino.
Revenues for land casinos would be expected to generate as much as $2 million per year for addiction counseling.
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