There’s more than meets the eye to Rep. Ortitay’s HB271
InfoPowa readers may recall our report on a seemingly innocuous bill HB271 introduced to the Pennsylvanian House earlier this year by Rep. Jason Ortitay, seeking to permit tablet gaming in the departure area of state airports.
At the time, given the other gambling expansion and legalisation bills in the legislature (HB392, S524 and S477) the Ortitay bill appeared almost superfluous, but it was advanced by the House Gaming Oversight Committee on a vote of 21 vs. 6 and it appears there is now a deeper intention for the measure.
Writing in the Online Poker Report, the well-connected freelance writer Matthew Kredell reported this week on conversations with lawmakers which indicate that HB271 is largely a shell that can be loaded up with other online gambling amendments when it reaches the Senate, and that it is intended as a means to spur that august body into action this year.
The state Senate has on two occasions chosen (for reasons that are not clear) to ignore previous House gambling expansion bills, allowing them to lapse.
Rep. George Dunbar, who has been pushing his own omnibus gambling HB392 bill with wider expectations, told Kredell that the bill is the intended vehicle for comprehensive gambling expansion, including online gambling.
Budget considerations and deadlines have influenced the House initiative, because gambling measures and the tax therefrom are important contributory elements in meeting the state budget requirements and a court order earlier this year (see previous InfoPowa reports).
So, instead of passing Dunbar’s H 392, the House is pushing through HB271 and offering the Senate the opportunity to load it with their requirements.
Dunbar told Kredell, “We put in one thing, tablets in airports, and basically said, ‘You load it up with what you want in it. It puts the ball in their court.
“We just need them to tell us what they want. We’ve told them what we want, and they’ve taken no action for some reason. We truly don’t know why. It’s time for them to put up. That’s where we’re at. I’m sure they’re going to come up with something.”
Kredell reports that to further motivate the Senate, an early budget bill accompanies HB271 to the Senate’s Committee on Community, Economic and Recreational Development, containing the potential to create $375 million in new tax revenues (including the $100 million already budgeted) from a full range of gambling expansion in the new fiscal year beginning July 1.
Options the Senate could consider include online gambling, daily fantasy sports and off-track betting parlours…but not the ultra-sensitive issue of video gaming terminals in private establishments, which the state’s land casino operators are against.
The hope is that the Senate will load up HB271 after considering the budget possibilities accompanying the measure, and then vote it through. It will then go back to the House for finalisation.
Rep Dunbar hopes that all of this can be accomplished by May 26, which is the deadline imposed last September and extended in January by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for lawmakers to sort out the controversial local share tax (see previous InfoPowa reports).
Online Casino News Courtesy of Infopowa
