The Delaware County Interactive Gaming Revenue Authority is getting its feet under it.
The fledgling authority’s job is to pump monies from online gaming tax revenue into community non-profits .
The authority exists because Delaware County hosts Harrah’s Philadelphia Casino and Racetrack , which is in Delco’s largest city, Chester . Online, Harrah’s hosts Caesars Online Casino as well as WSOP.com for online poker and Caesars Sportsbook .
Tax revenue funds from interactive gaming (2% for online table games, poker, and sports betting; 7% for online slots) flow to the county and are then passed on to the authority. Similar authorities exist in other PA host counties, such as Dauphin and Erie . The authorities answer to the state’s Commonwealth Financing Authority . Delco Authority spreads gaming revenue around county of more than 567,000
Just last month, the Delco authority began giving away grant money for the first time. The authority sent out $90,000 to 15 vetted community organizations around the county in the form of $5,000 checks .
And the authority plans to soon send out $50,000 more to assist volunteer emergency responders throughout the exurban communities southwest of Philadelphia, which ranges from densely populated municipalities to semi-rural communities. Babysteps still to come for interactive gaming revenue authority
The organization has hired an auditor and a lawyer, but COVID-19 slowed them down, forcing meetings to virtual presentations until recently, cutting down public awareness and input.
They have no staff, though they now finally have email: [email protected] . Members of the authority are themselves checking the email feed.
This month, they met in person, the second live meeting in a row, though their meetings are both live-streamed and cataloged on YouTube .For now, they are meeting monthly, but they may shift to quarterly next year. The next meeting is on Nov. 18 at 2 p.m . at the county building in Media, the county seat. Authority is little known and still without a website The authority is quite low-profile, and while meetings are open, traditionally the public has not shown up. Their online meetings attract just a handful of viewers.Meanwhile, the cumbersomely known DCIGRA still […]
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