Gaming in Pennsylvania: Where do we go from here?

The election is over. Governor-elect Tom Wolf will be sworn in January 2015. He inherits a state that is in need of cash for a myriad of problems.

Where will that money come from?  I'm a betting man so I'm looking at gambling. Not for me but for Pennsylvania. I see two potential options for 2015.

One is the gaming license that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is mulling over for Philadelphia. The applicants are vying for it and willing to provide tax revenue and jobs. The closing of several casinos in Atlantic City has many insiders thinking that another license may saturate the Philadelphia market. That is not the view of Casino Revolution, Market 8, Live! and Provence. It should be noted that Wynn Philadelphia and Hollywood withdrew their bids.

They all feel they can make it work without  totally cannibalizing  the 3 casinos that are presently in operation. The economic impact will primarily effect Philadelphia and not the entire Commonwealth. I'll go into detail about the viability of expanding the market in a future post. You can get updates through the process by joining the PGCB mailing list.

The second option is to explore online gaming from all aspects. Poker and Table Games come to mind. The model in New Jersey shows that there is a demand to play online. That demand is slowly manifesting toward being a 200 million dollar business within the next 18 months.

Poker alone will not bring in enough revenue to merit implementation. Nevada's online poker’s best month this year was June, when the revenue exceeded $1 million. This was largely due to the World Series of Poker. The live event prompted an influx of online players. Experts say the game would be more popular and lucrative if Nevadans could legally gamble online with pools of players from other states.

Poker Only Model

I think the online line approach is more feasible. It creates jobs, tax revenue and more importantly, levels the playing field amongst the existing casinos. New Jersey was able to get ramped up and start gaming online in less than a year. Pennsylvania could do the same thing. 

Due to a larger population and site possibilities to play, we could exceed the 200 million I quoted earlier in New Jersey in half the time. An extensive report was submitted to the Pennsylvania legislature by  Econsult  and it supports this theory. The revenue from online gaming could cure a lot of problems in the areas of social services and education.

Where do you think we should go?  Share your thoughts on gaming in Pennsylvania by following me.
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