With Delaware and New Jersey taking action to pass online poker legislation, it was only expected that Pennsylvania would follow. In a recent issue of Ante Up, we reported Bucks County state Rep. Tina Davis was expected to introduce a bill in March to legalize online gambling in Pennsylvania. Though that didn’t happen as of press time, Davis did speak to Philly.com about the bill.
“We wanted to get the conversation going,” she told the website. “Were working on some changes to the bill. I got a lot of feedback from different stakeholders, includes the casinos. If we do not protect our casinos and money in Pennsylvania, we will be hurt by all the competition.”
She also added that money from Internet gaming would go to the property Tax Relief Fund and the State Lottery Fund.
Hearing this news was music to my ears. With close to 13 million people in Pennsylvania, I think the state has the ability to dominate intrastate online poker in the country. It only makes sense to get the ball rolling now. Intrastate online gambling means players would only be able to gamble with players in their state.
The tax rate for the bill would be set at 20 percent and her legislation would set fees for license applications at $16.7 million. Between Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania, the Keystone State would have the largest intrastate player pool.
— Mike Owens is the Ante Up Ambassador for Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. You can follow him on Twitter @Holdemag and check out his blog at CheckRaze.com. He can be reached at anteupowens@gmail.com.
