Pennsylvania’s casino industry is a major driver of our statewide economy that benefits every single taxpayer, whether they happen to enjoy gaming or not.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, or PGCB, reports that annual gaming revenue broke records in the fiscal year that ended June 30, exceeding $5 billion.
The state’s casinos generated more than $2 billion in tax revenues in the last fiscal year. This, too, is a record. In fact, Pennsylvania collects more gaming tax revenue than any state in the nation.
Casinos deliver more than $150 million in annual local share grants to first responders and nonprofits in their local communities and invest more than $500 million annually with Pennsylvania businesses. This industry supports more than 30,000 jobs across the state for a total of $2 billion in annual wages, benefits and tips. That is an enormous and positive impact.
It is imperative that lawmakers consider these workers, and the industry’s contribution to every taxpayer as they debate proposals to expand gaming, specifically legislation sponsored by state Sen. Gene Yaw that would regulate what leading law enforcement agencies describe as illegal skill games.
Video slot machines have exploded in bars and taverns, gas stations, convenience stores, laundromats, corner stores and thrift shops, even though the attorney general and state police believe these devices are illegal.
These machines do not generate a penny in gaming taxes. They are bringing crime to communities across the state, and they drain revenue from programs for seniors that the Pennsylvania Lottery funds.
State police leaders testified in 2021 that the operation of these machines is ripe for corruption and that there are no active safeguards to prevent minors from gambling, unlike those instituted within licensed casinos.
The state police also testified that, “PSP, along with other law enforcement agencies throughout the commonwealth, continue to see increased criminal activity associated with the use and operation of these devices.”
The state police are not alone:
Gov. Tom Wolf’s office declared in 2020: “The administration believes Pennsylvania must take a hard line on illegal gambling, including so-called ‘games of skill’ and other slot machines. These machines are illegal, unregulated and put senior programs at risk by siphoning revenue from the Lottery.”
The attorney general’s office issued a statement saying that it was waiting for a Commonwealth Court ruling on the legality of skill games before seizing machines.
State Gaming Control Board Chief Counsel Doug Sherman testified in 2021: “It is the board’s position that we support the position of the Pennsylvania State Police that those machines (skill game machines) are not authorized by the Gaming Act.”
State Secretary of Revenue Dan Hassell said in 2019: “Our opinion is that those so-called games of skill are not legal under current law That is the opinion of the state police, that they have been talking about. And we support their position on this.”
Pennsylvania Lottery executive director Drew Svitko has testified that these machines drain more than $200 million annually from the lottery. Every dollar pumped into an illegal machine comes at the expense of seniors who rely on meals on wheels and other lifesaving programs funded by lottery proceeds.
Pennsylvania got it right in 2004, when gaming was first introduced, and then in 2017 when gaming was expanded to include online gaming and 10 new casinos. Rather than regulate illegal gaming devices, lawmakers should tighten current state law to remove these machines and the threat they pose to communities, seniors and 30,000 workers.
Pete Shelly is the spokesman for Pennsylvanians Against Gaming Expansion.
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