Pennsylvania makes a move towards regulation of online poker

Members of the Pennsylvania House Democratic Policy Commitee held a hearing yesterday to discuss the concept of online gaming in the state. According to the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, online gambling could be ‘effectively regulated’ in the state.

The gambling industry has been growing in Pennsylvania lately with slots machines, table games and the expansion of the Lottery. According to State Representative Mike Sturia, online gambling could be regulated at some point in Pennsylvania. “It exists anyway. So the question is do we make it safe? Do we make it a revenue source? Do we protect consumers who are currently being scammed by illegal online gaming interests? “. Land-based casinos could run the online sites; the State would oversee them, as the Gaming Control Board does now. Casino representatives would be interested in doing so. “The younger demographic does everything online," said David Satz, senior vice president of government affairs for Caesars International. "We think that's part of the opportunity, for us to offer that to our customers that already do so much online." Supporters insist that online gambling is a reality and the state's not getting a cut of the action. "Today any Pennsylvanian can log onto a poker site, a sports betting site, or a casino site and place wagers totally unsupervised," said John Pappas of Poker Player Alliance, which boasts 25,000 members in the Commonwealth. "What we want is supervision. As a player, there's great risk if you're depositing money whether you're going to get your money back and whether the site is reputable and regulated."

But according to Keith Whyte of the DC-based National Council of Problem Gambling, Internet gambling has high risk factors for addiction. According to him, there are 280,000 Pennsylvanians addicted to gambling and expanding it to the Internet will only grow that number. "We estimate the social cost from criminal justice and health care mainly is $255 million already this year in Pennsylvania," Whyte said. "So if you're going to expand gambling, I know they want to increase revenue, but there is a social cost there."

Source: 4Flush