State rep slams passage of slots bill

Representative Wilt believes the state should have auctioned the slot licenses.
GREENVILLE, Pa. -- Sunday's vote to legalize slot machines in Pennsylvania was "the high watermark of political insanity in Harrisburg," said state Rep. Rod Wilt of Greenville, R-17th.
He voted no on the passage of House Bill 2330, which authorizes 12 casino-type licenses to bring slot machines into the state.
"For months gambling proponents have peddled the ill-conceived concept that legalizing slot machines holds the potential of delivering $1 billion dollars in long-awaited property tax relief. But in order for this pipe dream to come true, Pennsylvania residents would have to annually surrender $22.5 billion worth of quarters and lose $3 billion to these one-armed bandits," Wilt said Tuesday.
This amount is four times above the average of annual gambling revenue collected from casinos nationwide, including Las Vegas and Atlantic City. The average Pennsylvania household would have to lose more than $275 every year to receive a property tax rebate of $75, he said.
"If the expansion of gambling had to happen, at the very least our hard-working citizens should have collected the biggest payoff, rather than a select group of millionaire racetrack owners and business owners with deep political ties to the governor," he said.
Bailouts
Funneling most of the potential revenue to bail out Philadelphia and the Pittsburgh International Airport is a blatant slap in the face to Pennsylvania taxpayers, Wilt said.
"Studies have shown that auctioning these slot machine licenses on the open market to the highest bidder would bring at least $2 billion. Rather than freely dealing out the single largest corporate welfare giveaway in Pennsylvania history, the governor and his pro-gambling cohorts in the General Assembly could have used that $2 billion dollars to actually deliver his misleadingly promised $1 billion in annual property tax relief to our over-burdened families," he said.
"If expanded gambling was truly intended to provide citizens with property tax relief, the governor's decision to fund his so-called vision for a new Pennsylvania through slot machines is a no-win bet that will cost us dearly for years to come," Wilt said.