HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A bill that could allow several thousand bars in Pennsylvania to profit from gambling contests called small games of chance won the state Senate’s approval Wednesday, and its passage would represent the state’s largest expansion of legal gambling in nearly four years.
The bill passed the Senate 39-11 without debate and senators had initially expected a speedy vote in the House and a signature by Gov. Tom Corbett.
But that changed several hours after the Senate vote, with House Republicans insisting on taking time to review the bill and a spokesman for Corbett saying the governor wanted to ensure that the considerable tax revenue – anticipated to be about $150 million a year – from the newly legal gambling would be directed to programs for the elderly.
The last substantial expansion of gambling approved by lawmakers was in 2010, when slot-machine casinos were allowed to add table games.
Under the bill, approximately 4,500 bars and taverns could seek licenses to hold pull-tabs, daily drawings and tavern raffles. Individual prize limits would be $2,000 for a single game and $35,000 over seven days, while raffles would be limited to once a month. The state would take 60 percent of the bar owner’s revenue, while the state’s budget analysts expect that about 2,000 bar owners would get licenses based on the experience in Indiana.
Amy Christie of the Pennsylvania Licensed Beverage Association, which represents bars and restaurants with state liquor licenses, said the gambling expansion would allow mom-and-pop bar and tavern owners to compete with casinos and the private clubs that can sell liquor and profit from gambling.
But, she insisted, the gambling expansion being afforded to bars and taverns in the bill was a fraction of what their competitors are able to offer.
“This is not casino gaming, this is not private club gaming,” Christie said.
The additional income for tavern owners- state budget analysts project about $100 million a year – would help bar and tavern owners make a living, but also allow them to continue donating to charities and sponsoring civic causes such as ball fields and softball teams.
“It’s not going to come out of our meager existence we make selling a beer,” she said.
Asked about concerns over the growth of gambling addiction, Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, said he viewed the additional gambling that would be allowed in bars as similar to buying a lottery ticket.
A companion bill passed by the Senate, 45-5, would expand from six to eight how games that private clubs and volunteer organizations – VFW posts, American Legion halls and Moose and Elks lodges – could offer, and it would raise some maximum prizes. The two new games would be race night games, or betting on prerecorded horse races, and small sports betting pools, although the entire betting pool would have to be returned to the players.
That bill was sent to the House, but did not see action in the chamber Wednesday.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
