|
Rendell
Proud of Slot Machine Progress
Pennsylvania has been talking about slot
machines for almost 25 years, but no one
ever really seemed to want to do it.
Then the crisis of the public school
system stepped up, and so did property
taxes – and slot machines were now a hot
issue. With the thought that slot
machines could reduce the amount of
property taxes being paid, many were
much happier at the thought of bringing
them in.
Governor Ed Rendell took the slot
machine ball and ran with it. He decided
that he wanted to make it the
cornerstone of his election and during
his first year as governor the
legislature ok’d the idea of bringing in
slot machines to fix the property tax
problem they were facing. "I know there
are many Pennsylvanians who did not want
to see an expansion of [slot machine]
gaming, who believe that [slot machines
have] some detrimental effects. I agree
with you, but Pennsylvanians were
gambling anyway," Rendell said at the
time.
The
original legislation, Act 72, was
actually voted down by the school
districts it was created to help. The
act tied revenue from the slot machines
to property tax reductions, thus giving
the schools the money they needed and
the property tax owners the break they
needed. The slot machine plan seemed
like a win-win. Rendell kept trying to
get the slot machines passed. "Gaming
does a lot of good around the state of
Pennsylvania. I know my critics don't
like to admit that, but it already does
a lot of good. And when that billion
dollars in property tax relief arrives,
[the slot machines will] do more good,
especially for older Pennsylvanians,"
the governor said.
There are
now two slot machine parlors open in the
state, and when all is said and done
there will be eleven places for people
to play more than 60,000 slot machines.
Back to Monthly
Archive //
Main Slot Machine News Index
 |