Regulations surrounding online poker are constantly being reviewed with every state having the onus to set up its own laws. Currently, Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey are the only states where online poker is licensed. New Jersey’s neighbor, Pennsylvania is slated to be the next to license online poker along with California and New York.
That’s positive news for poker fans in The Keystone State and industry experts believe Penn could be the next to legalize and regular poker. That’s because the state has been watching its neighbor closely. For the most part, New Jersey has been able to boost its tax collection by as much as $46 million since online poker was legalized in November 2013. The Garden State has collected more than $60 million in online poker alone, while monthly collections now cross the $14 million mark.
Adding to New Jersey’s growing online poker sites in March 2016 was PokerStars which managed to garner hundreds of new customers in the first week alone. Cash game traffic rose significantly by about 20%. Apart from the lucrative tax revenue, this also has the authorities in Pennsylvania to sit up and take note. In a tough economy, revenue from online gaming could potentially be a silver lining. Other states have begun to grow their customer bases with land-based casinos. In order to remain competitive, Pennsylvania’s legislators are well aware that the state must expand its gaming options and build a reputation so that people can find options to Atlantic City. Interstate compacts on liquidity sharing are definitely something that the state’s lawmakers are also considering.
Efforts to regulate online poker continue to be made by Pennsylvania State Representative John Payne who introduced bill HB 649 which was approved by the House Gaming Oversight Committee and was included in the House’s budget proposal. Payne is confident of the bill being passed in some form this year and possibly before the summer break. Amendments to the bill were made to include other forms of gambling expansion. This has found favor with land-based and online casino operators. Payne has been in office for almost 14 years and is likely to retire, and would therefore be keen on seeing that the online poker bill is approved.
New York is a close competitor and Pennsylvania ought to take note of that too and make the first move since online poker is now a part of the New York Senate’s budget proposal. The East Coast is likely to be dotted with states legalizing online poker in some form. However, the key is to act fast in order to derive the benefits of liquidity agreements with other states.
Now, it is left up to Pennsylvania’s lawmakers to take the opportunity and put the state on the online gaming map and benefit from tax revenues just like The Garden State.
