An amended reform bill on Tuesday went through the relevant Pennsylvania Senate committee which will see online gambling permitted in the US state, but with such an onerous level of taxation that many observers feel that online gambling in Pennsylvania will be still-born.
After another committee stage, it was due to come up for a full Senate vote today (Wednesday).
If the bill (HB271) is adopted as it stands then online casino revenues will be taxed at 54 per cent from both slots and table games, higher than the land-based casino rates in the state which is 54 per cent on slots but only 16 per cent on table games. Online poker will be taxed at 16 per cent and licences will vary between $5m and $10m each if operators want to have both online poker and casino.
It does apparently permit online poker playing pooling with other states and daily fantasy sports will be legalised and regulated with operators paying $50,000 or 7.5 per cent on gross revenue, whichever is lower and a tax rate would be set at 12 per cent.
The bill also permits tablet gaming at some airports. The bill may yet be amended to a more favourable format and content.
