PENNSYLVANIA State Senate delays voting on legalization of gambling

If the bill passes, only Nevada would have more slot machines.
HARRISBURG (AP) -- Despite a full day of preparing for a vote on whether to legalize slot machines, Pennsylvania state senators adjourned without voting on the issue.
A final draft of a bill to legalize slot machines was still being printed at 9:30 p.m., and senators decided it was time to call it a night.
After a yearlong buildup, senators held over for one more day an expected vote on whether to legalize as many as 61,000 slot machines in the state as a way to pour $1 billion a year into property-tax reductions and tens of millions more into public projects.
With long nights expected today and Friday, senators decided not to push deep into Wednesday night waiting for the bill to be printed.
Stalling
Democrats later blamed Republicans, who hold the Senate majority and who largely oppose gambling, for the decision to end the night. They warned that continued delays could force a government shutdown because a budget agreement for the fiscal year beginning today is awaiting action on the gambling bill.
The bill would authorize 14 gambling licenses at resorts, racetracks and other sites around the state and could give Pennsylvania more annual public revenue from gambling than any other state -- and more slot machines than any state besides Nevada.
For most of Wednesday, senators waited for a final draft to come out while dozens of lobbyists plied the hallways of the Capitol.
The bill would set up a gambling commission that would award 12 licenses, for a fee of $50 million, that would each allow up to 5,000 slot machines, and two limited "resort" licenses for $5 million each that would allow up to 500 slot machines.
Funding state projects
The gambling commission that would be set up by the bill would have the authority to borrow money against expected gambling revenues as a way to pay out property tax relief without having to wait for revenues to accumulate. Lawmakers don't expect a significant effect on property tax bills for two years or more.
License owners would get to keep nearly half of the gambling revenues, while the state would take 34 percent in hopes of providing $1 billion that would be distributed among local school districts and passed on to homeowners in dollar-for-dollar reductions in their property taxes.
Nearly 9 percent of the slots revenue would be poured into the state's wilting horse-racing industry, while host municipalities and counties would get 4 percent for budget aid and development projects.
The remaining 5 percent is expected to produce $150 million annually to finance as much as $2 billion in borrowing for public projects.
Major beneficiaries are expected to be the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, which could get more than $600 million to expand, and Allegheny County, where local authorities could get $400 million.