Pennsylvania Lawmakers Approve Changes in Slots Law
A bill that became a political football bounced through the Pennsylvania Legislature largely on the strength of Republican votes Saturday after lawmakers spent weeks jousting over whether and how to amend the state's four-month-old slot-machine gambling law.
With the Legislature rushing to close its two-year session this weekend, the bill was sent to Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell. While House Democratic leader H. William DeWeese warned that Rendell would veto the Republican-authored bill, Rendell's spokeswoman said he had not made a decision.
The last holdup on the legislation dropped away Saturday when House Republicans joined the Senate GOP in supporting the repeal of a requirement in current law that slot-machine manufacturers sell through a Pennsylvania-based distributor.
The bill passed the Senate on a 28-19 party-line vote and the House by a wider margin, 130-63. Democrats, who supplied most of the votes to pass the original legislation, say the bill carries gifts for the gambling industry and could open a "garage door" to public corruption.
"This is an atrocious piece of legislation," said Sen. Vincent Fumo (D-Philadelphia), a key architect of the original gambling law. "And worse than that, it is a deceptive piece of legislation."
Republicans cited the bill's provisions for greater gambling oversight by the attorney general and a new prohibition on lawmakers' ownership of gambling interests.
The bill is "the first step in cleaning up our new gaming law," said Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, an outspoken gambling opponent.
Senate Republicans contend that no other gambling state requires that slot-machine manufacturers go through local distributors, and a middleman would simply increase costs for slots licensees. Democrats had argued for the requirement, saying distributorships would create jobs in the state.
The state's fledgling gambling commission has yet to meet, hire an employee or issue any licenses to operate slots parlors. The law, which authorized as many as 61,000 slot machines at 14 gambling halls, was designed to tax gambling revenue in an effort to generate $1 billion to lower residential property taxes.
The ping-ponging bill originally gained steam, and then amendments, in July after lawmakers became worried that the public believed they had reserved a 1% ownership stake in slots parlors for themselves. They said a 1 percent ownership allowance was designed to accommodate stock ownership held in a fund over which the owner has no control, such as a mutual or pension fund.
The Republican-sponsored change would dictate an absolute ban on ownership in a company that operates or supplies a Pennsylvania gambling hall, but maintained a provision for mutual funds and pension funds under which an unlimited ownership of a gambling interest would not be prohibited.
The House has barred members from owning a gambling interest, and Rendell issued an identical order for members of his administration. The Senate has no such rule.
