The Pennsylvania state legislature has been hard at work trying to identify new revenue streams, which will not increase residents’ current taxes. One of the additional revenue sources they have been exploring is regulated online gambling.
Since the soft deadline of July 1 for identifying new revenue streams has passed, many wonder if the new iGaming bill that was expected to pass in 2015 is off the table. Inside sources, say that with all the talks of potential revenue streams that online gambling has yet to arise.
Pennsylvania has 12 live casinos in total. According to a report from USPoker, Penn National and Caesars are two of the state’s largest casinos, and both have been actively been advocating for an online gambling expansion. Although, Penn National no longer expects any changes in the near future.
Penn National CEO Tim Wilmott was stated as saying, “We don’t expect anything happening in ’15, but we’ve been encouraged by the hearings that we’ve participated in, in and around the state of Pennsylvania, that there’s more of an appetite to consider these options than there ever has been.”
There is much to be taken into consideration when legalizing online gambling, so maybe 2016 will be Pennsylvania’s year.
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