Massachusetts Could Do as Well as PA

Massachusetts lawmakers are looking at the amount of money that is being brought into the state of Pennsylvania from their slot machines and they are wondering how they could do something similar. They want to know why their residents are so dead set against the slot machines when you can see how much good they are doing for the state. But no matter how much they dream of slot machines, for now it is just that – a dream.

Since PA opened their first slot machine parlor in 2006 the state has brought in more than two billion dollars in taxes and casino license fees – not including what they have brought in this year. They bring in somewhere around $2.5 million a day in slot machine taxes and in 2008 more than a billion of that money went to property tax relief.

But part of the problem for Massachusetts residents is that there is no clear cut way of splitting the slot machine revenue. They know that there should be some money given to those towns that host the slot machines and bear the burden of extra police and road work, etc. but how that breaks down has yet to be determined. Many residents are uneasy about allowing slot machines to come in without a plan for they fear that the government will waste the money that they have been given.

The state legislature has more legislation in front of it right now regarding slot machines at the tracks but nothing has been decided just yet. Until a decision has been made, the state simply has to wait to see how their budget shortfalls might be taken care of – and without residents behind a plan for slot machines there is no easy answer to that question.

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