| After nine long month
of anticipation, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board officially
award licenses to 12 slot machine distributors across the state,
ultimately creating the good news that the states horseracing tracks
will receive their operator’s licenses by this September.
Chairman Tad Decker recognized the board’s
achievement of deciding how slot machines will be sold across the
state as “a major step forward for gaming in Pennsylvania.”
Now that the slot machine distribution policy
is settled and the distributors licensed, the actual slot machine
licenses should be approved by the board starting September 26,
2006. Two Philadelphia area racetracks claim, under this schedule,
they could have the slot machines up and running by January of the
New Year.
The delay results from a mandatory 90 day
waiting period between the licensing of distributors and the
awarding of a slot machine operating license. Slots casinos are
obligated to purchase all machines from in-state distributors.
The boards game plan is to award slot machine
license to the racetracks before granting them to other operators by
the end of 2006. There are a number of establishments in
Philadelphia in-line to receive slot machines licenses from the
board, including: Harrah’s Chester Casino & Racetrack, Philadelphia
Park in Bensalem and two of five all new slots casino proposals.
Once slot machine license distribution is
complete, Pennsylvania will be covered in slot machine
destinations. The 2004 Pennsylvania slots law permits a total of
61,000 slot machines at two resorts, five free-standing slots
parlors, and seven racetracks across the state.
The deadlock over enforcing the distributor
system broke when board member Jeffery Coy finally caved in. Coy
had been holding out for a provision that would create an eastern
and western distribution region in Pennsylvania. His hope was to
force slot machine manufacturers to recruit suppliers in both
regions, thereby creating more local jobs. But, fearing the
additional bureaucratic process that would come with the July 5th
deadline, Coy ceded his demands.
The supplier provision has received harsh
criticism as being structured for the sole purpose of aiding
political allies. Truthfully, of the 22 supplier applicants, quite
a few of them are indeed politically well-connected partners, namely
Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission Chairman Mitch Rubin, former Lt.
Gov. Mark Singel, Fairmount Park Commission Chairman Robert Nix III,
and many other well-know lobbyists.
However, none of the political top dogs
received a license. Singel, Nix, Rubin, and the other were among a
list of 10 applications labeled incomplete and sent back for further
work.
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