Pennsylvania to Face a New Online Gambling Reform Bill

Pennsylvania has presented another online gambling bill. Senate Bill 524 was officially introduced by number of Democratic State Senators.

The four co-sponsors and supporters of the bill are the Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, Senator Judy Schwank, Senator Vincent Hughes, and Senator Wayne Fontana. The memoranda regarding the co-sponsorship was first introduced in January 2017.

Apart from Senate Bill 524, there are a number of state Republican senators who brought another piece of the legislation that complements the House of Representative gaming reform bill that was introduced early March.

Senate Bill 524 Reforms

The SB 524 is the third of online gambling legislation the two prior one were SB 477 and HB 392, both of them being similar. Some of the provisions that were presented with the new bill are quite similar to ones previously included. It does however, include some reforms, mostly in terms of taxation and fees. The new bill is also focused on the legalisation and regulation of online gambling operations across Pennsylvania. It also looks to legitimization of the daily fantasy sports and online lottery.

The multi-state progressive slot machines will also be allowed to run in the state under the new Senate Bill 524. This bill will allow gaming on tablets at specific airports, Slot machines which are are considered to be skill-based and also hybrid ones.

The SB 524 bill also restores the local share tax that is imposed on host and the surrounding communities. Under the new nline gaming legislation

Casino facility requirement that is currently imposed which is Category 3, casinos will then be eliminated under the provisions of this new online gambling legislation, and would then be replaced with a once off fee to be charged. Also this new legislation will impose a higher tax rate of 25% for both online gambling as well as daily fantasy sports which is in comparison to the 14% tax rate that was previously offered. This newly-presented legislation offers a larger licensing fee that is estimated to be $10 million, previous licensing fees were $8 million. Should the Senate Bill 524 be passed, industry vendors would be hit by a higher rate which is estimated to be $5 millions compared to $2-million of other bills.