PA. SENATE Bill passes allowing slots at racetracks

The bill must pass the House in an identical form.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Proponents say a bill that would authorize slot machines at the state's racetracks will provide the economic boost the state needs, but opponents warned that the poor, elderly and vulnerable will suffer.
Senators voted 27-22 early today in favor just after midnight after more than three hours of debate on the bill, which arrived on the Senate floor after six weeks of furious negotiations revived an earlier plan that failed to get the support it needed for introduction.
Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell pushed the plan during his candidacy last year as a way to generate revenue to lower property taxes and revive Pennsylvania's financially troubled horse-racing industry.
Democrats, the minority party in the Senate, fell in behind him and supplied the lion's share of the votes, saying that licensing fees would immediately generate hundreds of millions of dollars for a state with spiraling property taxes and flagging revenues.
Sponsor's comments
The bill's sponsor, Republican Sen. Robert M. Tomlinson, whose Bucks County district hosts Philadelphia Park racetrack, called it "a very tough bill, a very good bill, a bill that makes sure this is a clean operation and that good people are involved with it."
To become law, the bill needs to pass the House in an identical form and get the governor's signature. If that happens, Pennsylvania would become the seventh state -- joining Louisiana, Iowa, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Delaware and West Virginia -- to allow slot machines at the racetracks.
Proponents are in a rush to get the bill passed by the middle of next week, when legislators hope to begin their traditional two-month summer vacation.
A slew of amendments on the bill failed, including one to direct 10 percent of the revenue to prescription drug assistance programs for the elderly.
Warning from opponents
Some opponents warned that the revenues realized from gambling could cost the state more in social ills than the tax dollars or business it generates.
"The question to ask tonight I believe is, 'Is it appropriate to fund our public priorities with a practice that is known to produce addiction?"' said Sen. Noah Wenger, R-Lancaster. "I am convinced there must be a better way."
Others criticized the bill's protections against Indian gambling as being too weak, saying that authorizing slot machines would be a shoehorn for those wanting to expand gambling further.
Tomlinson and Democratic Sen. Vincent Fumo of Philadelphia, whose office led negotiations on the compromise bill, countered that Pennsylvanians simply cross the border to gamble, and by default boost the economies of neighboring states.
"It's not a matter of whether the people of Pennsylvania are gambling," Tomlinson said. "I would just like to keep some of that money on this side of the border."
The bill would authorize the sale of licenses to racetracks for a fee of $50 million apiece. Track owners could keep 46 percent of the revenue, while the state would receive 36 percent of the revenue and 18 percent would go to subsidize purses at the tracks.
Smaller shares would be earmarked for other purposes, such as health benefits for the horsemen, breeders' funds, municipalities that host a track, gambling addiction programs and volunteer firefighters.
Rendell has projected that the track owners could install enough slot machines to generate $300 million in the fiscal year beginning Tuesday, and more than $750 million in ensuing fiscal years.