Pennsylvania Soon To Legalize Online Gambling
While online gambling is legal in several states in the USA, it’s not anywhere close to being implemented in all of them. As a matter of fact, only a single state – Nevada – allows online gambling with absolutely no restriction whatsoever. There are several which allows certain forms of online gambling, such as California, Utah, Massachusetts and South Dakota, but almost everywhere else this form of entertainment is completely and entirely illegal. While a lot of states don’t have laws that explicitly prohibit it, fines may still befall anyone who makes their casino accessible there, and even so, there’s still some states where this is entirely illegal and people who play online casino may face fines and even jail time, and obviously they’re not eligible to receive any of the winnings that they’ve accumulated. But very soon, one more state may be added to the (slowly) growing list of those that allow online casinos to exist – Pennsylvania.
The first talks on the matter started in 2013, when a bill to legalize online gambling was proposed, but ultimately rejected. It would, however, spark a discussion about whether or not the state should go through with something similar, with numerous proponents and opponents of the notion expressing an opinion. That proposal eventually led to a study conducted among specialists which aimed to discover the impact that online gambling will have on the state in terms of market share and tax profits. Ultimately, though, that study led to very little until 2015, when John Payne was appointed as Chairman of the Gaming Oversight Committee and really began pushing for online gambling legalization, beginning to push aggressively for the approval of acts and legislations that will make legalizing online gambling easier, leading to a proposal titled HB 649 which was presented in February of 2015.
While the proposal was not accepted last year, many believe that it will be this year. It’s no secret that the state of Pennsylvania has been struggling with budgetary concerns for a while, and the taxes that would be placed on an industry as inevitably profitable as online gambling could potentially bring in enough profits to pull Pennsylvania out of that hole. There’s also the fact that neighboring states, such as New York, are planning to open up numerous additional casinos by 2020, which could lead to a vast oversaturation of the market. One possible solution to this issue is the legalization of online gambling, which will move potential gamblers away from physical casinos and towards online ones, which provide a completely new experience.
The proposal (HB 649) is set to be reviewed once again this spring, so whether citizens of Pennsylvania will be able to play online casino games or not will be known by the middle of this year. Experts, however, remain optimistic that this is a very real possibility.