PENNSYLVANIA has just served notice on all the surrounding states in the casino game: We just opened a fresh can of whoop-ass with your name on it.
New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Connecticut and all the ships at sea – you’d better bet big or stay home.
The state Senate took the gloves off this week by passing an amendment to Senate Bill 711 (I’m not making that up) to add poker, roulette and black jack to the original slots legislation of 2004. But if they have to, they will sanction virtually every game of chance that can be played on or near a table.
They would OK Russian roulette if they could find a way to make the loser pay.
Pennsylvania has only been in the game for four years and Atlantic City’s mega-casinos are already starting to wilt under the pressure. Philadelphia’s slot palaces haven’t even escaped the drawing board and already they’re doing redesigns to accommodate table games.
But before they start decorating poker rooms on the waterfront, they might want to check with the local delegation. Philadelphia’s state lawmakers are hedging their bets.
“That’s a Senate bill. It still has to come back to us,” state Rep. Jewell Williams told me yesterday. “What I’m getting is that the bill came back with some elements that Philadelphia won’t support. The way it’s written now, I understand, it takes out the 2 percent local share that was supposed to come to the city.”
Read the full Inquirer article here
Tags: table games
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