Slot Machine Middlemen Eliminated

The House and the Senate have been working on changes to the original bill that legalized slot machines and stand alone slot machine casinos in the state of Pennsylvania. There has been much give and take, as both groups had things that they wanted to see amended in the original bill, but they realized that they just couldn’t get everything they wanted. Both groups were willing to compromise and take things out, but one thing they were both agreed on was the elimination of the slot machine middleman.

They did, however, differ in how they wanted to eliminate the groups that would act as go betweens for the slot machine manufacturers and the slot machine owners. They decided to make them optional, instead of mandatory like the original bill had them. The problem now was what to do with all of those companies that had already purchased their slot machine middleman license?

The Senate wanted to make the use of the middlemen optional immediately, whereas the House wanted to start phasing them out as their slot machine supplier licenses expired. Initially, each supplier had to pay the state a $25,000 slot machine license fee, and the House was worried that they could be looking at quite a few lawsuits if they were eliminated immediately. The House, however, eventually came around to the Senate’s way of thinking, and they are now optional.

The Senate ended up agreeing with the House on he slot machine tax idea, where they wanted to impose a $50 fee per slot machine for the treatment of gambling addiction. The House said that since they already take 54% of the slot machine revenue, more than any other state does, that they should not impose the fee.

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