Sheldon Adelson’s Anti-Online Gambling Committee Paid for Attack Ads on Rep. John Payne.
House Bill 649 was passed by the Pennsylvania House Gaming Oversight Committee this week. The online gambling bill is still steps steps away from passage, but getting out of committee was a key hurdle. Online Poker Report’s Chris Grove said the development is the “closest we’ve been to seeing an online gambling bill become law since the first wave of states that included New Jersey.”
HB 649 now moves to the floor of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, where the full House membership will vote on its proposals. Gaming Oversight chairman John Payne and Democrat co-chair Nick Kotik are behind the bill, so it is almost certain to be brought to the floor of the House for a wider vote. If it passes, then the bill would be referred to the Pennsylvania Senate. The bill then would go to the desk of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf,
HB 649 Could Be Added to 2016 State Budget
There is another possibility of the bill being passed. HB 649 could be attached to Pennsylvania’s upcoming 2016 budget. If so, then the bill could come up as part of a budget vote in December 2015.
Attaching it to such a bill would fast-track the process. Because any budget likely would be negotiated between the Democratic governor and the Republican legislature, the budget bill would be certain of passing the legislature and being signed into law.
Bill’s Merits Might Not Matter
Chris Grove speculated that the most important gambling bill since the Department of Justice announced a new stance on the UIGEA in 2011 might not be decided on its merits. Instead, state-level politics might decide its fate.
Grove said, “The bill is one small piece in a much broader debate surrounding the budget in Pennsylvania, so its fate may ultimately come down to forces completely disconnected from the merits of the bill or support for the bill itself.”
Las Vegas Sands’ Power in Pennsylvania
Proponents of legalized online gambling know not to take anything for granted. The Las Vegas Sands Corporation has a great deal of influence in the state of Pennsylvania, because its property, the Sands Bethlehem, is the highest grossing casino in the state. Las Vegas Sands is controlled by Sheldon Adelson, the activist billionaire who is seeking to ban online gambling throughout the United States.
Adelson’s political action committee has been smearing John Payne with attack ads for weeks. If it looks like a bill might be passed, people can expect to see Sheldon Adelson’s paid lobbyists and well-financed activists try to derail the process. They might succeed.
Pennsylvania Online Gambling Would Be Huge
If House Bill 649 is passed, though, it would be the most significant development for online gambling in the United States since New Jersey had its rollout in November 2013. New Jersey was the third state to legalize online gambling, behind Delaware and Nevada.
Pennsylvania legalizing online gambling would be an immense boost for the industry. The population of Pennsylvania is larger than that of New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware combined. In a single stroke of the pen, Gov. Tom Wolf would more than double the size of the American legal online gambling industry.
