Pennsylvania is One Step Closer to Having Multi-State Poker – With Governor Josh Shapiro engaged in talks with Senate GOP leaders on a skill games bill, Rep. George Dunbar (R-Jeannette) says its “certainly the game plan” to get his bill calling for… Pennsylvania online poker could be one step closer to becoming multi-state poker after Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro said Thursday that he was in talks with Republican leaders in the Senate on passage of a skill games bill.
Such a bill could be the vehicle that ultimately gets Pennsylvania into the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), a gaming compact that supports interstate real money online poker.
Rep. George Dunbar (R-Jeannette) predicted this scenario was possible after his bill calling for the Keystone State’s membership in MSIGA was not included in the state budget last July.
“That is certainly an avenue we would pursue,” Dunbar told pokerfuse in an exclusive interview Friday. “There’s no reason why [my MSIGA bill] can’t just get attached to it.”
Shapiro said at a press conference that he was in talks with Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R-Indiana) on a skill games bill that would provide much-needed funding for public transportation. Republicans control the Senate while Democrats have the majority in the House.
“Leader Pittman has made clear that he is open to finding mass transit all across the state … by using dollars that could come from regulating and taxing skill games,” Shapiro said Thursday, according to WPVI-TV in Philadelphia . “He sort of married those two concepts together.”
Pittman told the station that Republicans support additional funding for public transportation, which is why the GOP included a one-time $80 million investment for it in the $47.6 billion budget bill that Shapiro signed in July .
The state “does not have endless resources,” Pittman said Thursday.
One week earlier, after the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) had announced proposed fare increases on the mass transit system, Pittman said “we need a new revenue stream which will not place additional pressure on the General Fund.” Already Proposed Skill Game Bill Could Help Online Poker With just days left in the legislative session, […]
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