Rep. John Payne, the man whose name is most synonymous with efforts to push for online gambling legislation in Pennsylvania, said that he was optimistic about the prospects of finally making his proposed law a reality this year. Payne said in a recent interview that the Pennsylvania legislature would be taking up the matter in September this year, following a summer break, and online gambling would be part of an overall plan to expand gambling.
“The short version is this: Anything can happen between now and then, and the only thing I can guarantee 100 percent is that on Nov. 30 I am retiring,” said Payne. “But I do think it’s [online gambling] going to become law.”
Details of a new budget deal – which is to be voted on in the fall – are still being discussed between politicians, however it has been determined that revenues from an expanded gambling package would count towards the new budget. It is hoped that gambling will generate as much as $100 million per year for Pennsylvania, and that much of that sum would originate from online gambling. The Associated Press, when summarizing the new budget said about casino gambling expansion: “Assumes $100 million from gambling legislation that is on hold until the fall, primarily from licensing fees for legalizing internet gambling.”
Analysts agree that the sum of $100 million could never be achieved if online gambling is not made part of the equation.
Those who expressed concern that the fact that online gambling had been put off until the fall was yet another way of postponing the issue, were reassured by Rep. Payne.
“Multiple things were delayed to the fall,” said Payne. “It’s not like gaming was singled out.”
Payne pointed out that the Pennsylvania gambling industry was ripe to adopt igaming as part of its landscape and predicted that “eight of the 12 land casinos would sign up for igaming on Day 1.”
Payne said that a lot of work had gone into bringing the question of online gambling to the point it is currently at, and that over 50 meetings and hearings have been held in the last year and a half alone.
Payne, who is set to retire in a few weeks concluded: “I’m totally convinced that iGaming and fantasy sports — we should regulate them … keep minors off the sites, keep compulsive gamblers off,” Payne said. “And Pennsylvania should get some thing in return.”
