A top Democrat will introduce legislation early next year that could legalize poker, blackjack and other table games in the state's new casinos, legislative staffers said yesterday.
Just two weeks after the first slots parlor opened in Pennsylvania, and surprising even Democratic allies, State Rep. Bill DeWeese (D., Greene), the House minority leader, acknowledged that he was drafting a bill that could turn the state's planned slots parlors into full-fledged casinos.
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DeWeese is expected to become speaker of the House when the Democrats take control, as expected after late election results yesterday showed that Democrats had won the 156th District seat, in Chester County.
DeWeese's chief of staff, Michael Manzo, said various details of the bill were still being discussed, including whether to let local municipalities decide whether slots casinos should have table games.
"We have a ways to go" in terms of drafting final legislation Manzo said. "There is a question whether or not we want to do it through a local referendum," he said.
The goal of the bill would be to have all 14 licensees become eligible for table games to ward off competition from surrounding states, such as West Virginia, which are considering expanding from slot machines to full casino gambling.
"It used to be that slots made up 85 percent of [a casino's] business. But that's no longer the case anymore," Manzo said. "We can generate significantly more dollars for property taxes."
The law legalizing gambling was passed in 2004, largely to provide cash for tax cuts.
DeWeese, Manzo said, dismissed any suggestion that it promotes a negative side of gambling.
"There is no practical difference between putting $20 in a slot machine and putting $20 on a blackjack table," Manzo said.
Although the expansion of gambling has been predicted since the passage of the 2004 law that authorized up to 61,000 slot machines in the state, DeWeese's plan was shocking to some.
So far, only one of the 14 slots facilities allowed under the law has opened.
"You're kidding me?" asked Rep. Bill Keller (D., Phila.). "I knew it was coming. I didn't think it was coming this soon."
Gambling proponents have said poker and blackjack are necessary to attract younger, more affluent gamblers.
Sen. Vincent Fumo (D., Phila.), one of the most powerful proponents of legalizing slots, has said it would probably be 10 years before gambling were expanded here.
Gov. Rendell believes that there is "not an appetite" in the state for gambling beyond slots, his spokeswoman, Kate Philips, said yesterday.
Keller said he would rather "take a long, hard look" at how the two casinos authorized in Philadelphia would affect the neighborhoods before legalizing table games.
The House's leading Republican opponent of expanded gambling, Rep. Paul Clymer, of Bucks County, urged lawmakers to slow down the process.
"Without even looking at what the casinos do when they go online, we're ready to push table games," Clymer said.
Eleven states have legalized table games along with slot machines. States in the region, including West Virginia, Delaware and Rhode Island, have legalized slot machines at race tracks but have stopped there.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
