Fortunately, lawmakers in Harrisburg did seem to come to an agreement of sorts. Assuming that is passes a vote in the legislature and is signed by Pennsylvania Governor, Ed Rendell, 1,000 state employees jobs may be saved. The table games bill is not even close to saving the drained economy of Pennsylvania, but it is step forward in generating much needed revenue. There are more interested parties then are casino licenses to hand out. The debate stems between whether new licenses should be created for the interested parties or if competition would be the best way to settle the matter. It would seem on the surface that more casinos would mean more revenue, but the majority party and many of the existing casinos claim that an over saturation of gambling would drive down the value of the properties.

A provision on the bill was reached and both sides came out saving face depending on how you look at it. The provision states that for the time being the remaining casino licenses would have to be pursued by the interested parties. However, another casino license would be created in 2017. This seems to have both sides of the aisle in Pennsylvania quieted for now.

The resolution of the table games casino bill for now has kept what could have been a nasty lawsuit against the state by existing casino groups who would have felt cheated by the creation of a new license. Of course both sides are claiming that progress was made due to agreements and concessions made on their point. House Gaming Oversight Committee Chairman Dante Santoni went as far as to say, I think the attempt on our side was to get the process moving,” but he agreed “We have to get this bill passed by the time we get back into session so employees don’t get laid off.” (I’ll let you do the homework if you want to know who he represents.)

In any case it seemed the system worked. Lawmakers from two side of an idea finally came together and found a compromise that would help a needy state budget, and save jobs in the process. Credit must also be given to their governor who had to make the unpopular threat of laying of hard working citizens. Oh yeah, and we can all go to a casino in Pennsylvania and play black jack!

Tags: casino, gambling, online