• Pa Gaming Commission
• Casino Control Commission Pa
• Casino Control Commission Pa
• Pa Casino Gaming Commission

• Year Pennsylvania Regulated Gambling: Horse racing (1963), Lottery (1972), Bingo (1981), Slot Casinos (2004), Table Games (2010)
• Estimated Tax Revenue from Gambling: $2.8 billion
• Estimated Gambling Revenue: $6.8 billion
• Pennsylvania Gambling Age: 18 for lottery, bingo, and racing, 21 for casinos
• Smoking ban: Pennsylvania permits casinos to set aside a percentage of the floor for smoking areas
• Online gambling status: Horse racing is the only form of legal online gambling

Pennsylvania is the second largest casino state in terms of gambling revenue. Most of the state’s casinos are racetracks with attached casinos. There are three resort-style Pennsylvania casinos. Those offer fewer slots than the main gaming establishments in the state. This is unusual compared to most other states where casinos offer amenities. Most Pennsylvania casinos offer little more than gambling on slots, video poker, and table games.

Casinos are not the only forms of Pennsylvania gambling within the state. There is a state lottery that sells instant games and holds lotto drawings. There are live horse racing and off-track betting. Charities may hold limit games of chance to raise funds.

Paying Gambling Taxes in Pennsylvania

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Pennsylvania Casinos Map & Guide

Pa Casino Control Commission. Pa casino control commission The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is a governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, founded in 2004 as the state licensing and regulatory agency responsible for overseeing slot machines and casino gambling in the state.Casinos: History of Gambling in Philadelphia. Plans for a casino in Berks County have taken a big step toward becoming reality. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on Wednesday unanimously approved Penn National Gaming's plans for Hollywood.

• Harrah’s
• Parx Casino
• Rivers Casino
• Sands Bethlehem
• Sugarhouse Casino

• Number of B&M Casinos: 12
• Number of Poker Rooms: 10
• Number of Indian Casinos: 0

Types of Pennsylvania Online Gambling Allowed

There is only one form of legalized online Pennsylvania gambling. That is off-track betting on horses. Sites like TVG, TwinSpires, and XpressBet partnered with Pennsylvania tracks to offer this service over the Internet and on mobile apps.

Daily fantasy sports sites claim to be legal in Pennsylvania. There is no law on the books that expressly states that. The companies claim to be skill gaming sites. There are bills under consideration by the Pennsylvania Legislature that would make daily fantasy sports a regulated and legal activity. DraftKings, FanDuel, CBS Sports, and Yahoo! are among the sites that accept Pennsylvania players.

Types of Live Pennsylvania Gambling

• Slots: Yes
• Blackjack: Yes
• Poker: Yes
• Craps/Roulette: Yes
• Horses: Yes
• Lottery: Yes

Pennsylvania gambling offers nearly every form of betting they want in the state. Pennsylvania casinos started out only offering slots, video poker, and electronic table games. That expanded to live poker, blackjack, craps, roulette, and nearly any house-banked card game one can imagine. There are 12 Pennsylvania casinos with one more in the planning stage.

There are seven racetracks in Pennsylvania. These offer live racing and race books. These tracks moved into the casino business. That helped keep the racing industry above water.

The Pennsylvania Lottery sells scratch-off tickets and lotto drawings. These are available at thousands of convenience stores across the state. There are Pennsylvania-only lotto drawings that include Pick 2, Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5, Cash4 Life, Cash5, and Match 6. The Pennsylvania Lottery also participates in multi-state lottery drawings. These are Powerball and Mega Millions.

Bingo is permissible if spread by a charity. There are more than a dozen licensed bingo halls in the state.

Pennsylvania Gambling Laws

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is permitted to issue 14 casino licenses. Seven were guaranteed to the state’s racetracks. There were five standalone Pennsylvania casino licenses awarded. Two resorts receive licensure. A third resort will receive a license in 2017 to bring the total to 15 Pennsylvania casinos within its borders.

Casinos in Pennsylvania pay a tax rate of 55 percent on slots, video poker, and electronic table games. Live poker and table games have a tax rate of 16 percent.

Charities may apply for a bingo license. These cost $100 and are active for one year. Bingo games may have no prize larger than $250 for a single game except for the jackpot drawing. That bingo game may have a $2,000 prize pool. The largest amount of money that may be awarded in one day by a bingo charity is $4,000. Bingo halls may not spread more than two nights of action a week. Exceptions are made for charities that only hold annual celebrations. These nonprofit groups can hold 10 consecutive days of bingo games.

The Pennsylvania Lottery may only spread two types of games. One is instant games, sometimes referred to as scratch-off tickets. The other is lotto drawings. The Pennsylvania Lottery holds its own drawings as well as joins multi-state pools.

Horse racing is active in Pennsylvania. Seven tracks are licensed to offer live races. Each has a race book. Horse racing tracks may partner with online betting apps for remote wagering. Players may make deposits and withdrawals at the partner tracks.

The minimum Pennsylvania gambling age is 18 years of age, except for casinos, where the minimum gambling age is 21. Bingo participants may be under 18 if accompanied by an adult.

List of Pennsylvania Casinos

There are 12 Pennsylvania casinos open and currently operating. Seven are at racetracks that also offer live and simulcast betting, and the rest are casino resorts.

History of Pennsylvania Gambling

Horse racing was the first form of legalized gambling in Pennsylvania. Its regulation started in 1964. The racing industry dated back more than 200 years before that. Dozens of tracks operated off the book races where the betting was handled through underground networks. It took until 1964 for the state to determine it was better off regulating and taxing the racing industry than to let it operate without any oversight.

The Pennsylvania Lottery was created by Act 91 on August 26, 1971. The first lottery ticket was sold on March 7, 1972. It was a half-dollar drawing with a $1 million grand prize. The Pennsylvania Lottery joined interstate drawings on June 27, 2002.

The Racehorse Development and Gaming Act was signed into law by Governor Ed Rendell on July 5, 2004. This permitted racetracks to add slots, video poker and electronic table games. It was created to help save the state’s racing industry. Table games and live poker were added in January 2010.

The new table games helped Pennsylvania’s gambling industry explode. The state surpassed New Jersey as the second highest state in terms of gaming revenue in 2012. Pennsylvania has retained that title ever since. Nevada is the only state with more gaming revenue than Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania looked again to expand gambling in 2013. This time, it was over the Internet. Multiple attempts have included online poker and casino games. None has reached the assembly or senate floor for a vote.

The Pennsylvania Legislature is also looked to expand gambling to daily fantasy sports in 2016. Those talks have also failed to produce a new law regulating and taxing the contests.

Pennsylvania Casinos & Gambling FAQ

The minimum Pennsylvania gambling age is determined by the types of gambling they want to use. Lottery and racing players must be at least 18. Pennsylvania casino players must be 21 years of age or older. Bingo players must be at least 18 unless accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Slots, video poker, electronic table games, live poker, blackjack, baccarat, Pai Gow, Three Card Poker, Four Card Poker, Ultimate Texas Hold’em, Let it Ride, Mississippi Stud Poker, Texas Hold’em Bonus and Caribbean Stud Poker are among the approved games at Pennsylvania casinos.

Yes. All seven horse racing tracks in Pennsylvania offer race books.

The only form of online gambling legal in Pennsylvania is off-track betting on horses.

Pa Gaming Commission

State law does not cover daily fantasy sports. Sites like DraftKings, FanDuel, CBS Sports and Yahoo! claim that the contests are skilled games.

Pennsylvania generates more gaming revenue than any other state except Nevada.

The Pennsylvania Lottery sells scratch-off and lotto tickets.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is a governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, founded in 2004 as the state licensing and the regulatory agency responsible for overseeing slot machines and casino gambling in the state.

The first completely new agency created in Pennsylvania in over 30 years, the PGCB administers the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act, also known as 'Act 71', and its regulations to assure public trust and confidence in the credibility and integrity of casinos in Pennsylvania. The Board also acts to fulfill 'the objectives of limited gaming in the Commonwealth to deliver a significant source of revenue, assist the horse racing industry, provide broad economic opportunities, and enhance tourism.'^[1]

The PGCB does not oversee games of chance in the Commonwealth such as the Pennsylvania Lottery or other permitted games of chance at clubs and non-profit organizations.

In December 2020, Pennsylvania became the first state to use a self-exclusion tool for online gamblers. In Pennsylvania, about 200,000 gamblers have had problem gaming issues.^[2]

Casino Control Commission Pa

Composition[edit]

The board consists of seven voting members, three of which are appointed by the Governor of Pennsylvania and four of which are appointed by the leadership of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.^[3] By statute, the State Treasurer, Secretary of Revenue, and Secretary of Agriculture are non-voting ex officio members.^[4]

Current commissioner Merritt C. Reitzel was appointed by SenatorJoe Scarnati for a two-year term in 2017 and was re-appointed in 2019.^[5]

Notable board members[edit]

• Jeffrey Coy (2004–2006)
• Gregory Fajt (Chairman, 2009–2011)
• William H. Ryan, Jr. (Chairman, 2011–2015)

Duties[edit]

Among other duties, the Board operates a slot-machine testing center. Located above the Board's Harrisburg office, the center was established in September 2008. Each month, Pennsylvania casinos and slot-machine operators give the Board a list of the 'payouts' on each of their machines: how often and how much they pay per average play. Board employees at the center test various models of slot machine to measure their payouts. This information is not passed on to the public.^[6]

The PGCB also set up an Office of Compulsive and Problem Gambling devoted to 'understanding and alleviating the devastating effects of pathological gambling.'^[7] Under PGCB's regulations, gambling facilities in the state must submit and have approved a compulsive-and-problem-gambling plan before starting gambling operations. These plans must include items such as employee training when dealing with compulsive gamblers, self-exclusion plans and how to handle people who want to be on Pennsylvania's self-exclusion list, the responsibility of patrons with respect to responsible gambling, the availability of printed material and signage throughout the casino, and procedures to prevent intoxicated and underage gambling.^[8]

Funding and support[edit]

The PGCB's funding is from several sources, none directly from taxpayers. The largest funding mechanism is from slot machine revenues, but only after deduction of appropriate taxes that are transferred to a number of recipients:^[9]

• the local and county governments that host a facility
• the horse racing industry
• economic development and tourism efforts, and
• a State Gaming Fund which primarily provides revenues to school districts which, in turn, use toward the lowering of local property taxes.

In addition, the PGCB bills applicants for investigative costs associated with securing any type of license and manufacturers of slot machines and related goods who seek approval of equipment to be used in casinos.^{[original research?]}

The Gaming Act also requires a role in gaming oversight by the State Police, Department of Revenue and Attorney General, whose costs are also reimbursed from slot machine revenues.^{[original research?]}

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board'. Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Retrieved January 1, 2009.
2. ^Bittenbender, Steve (December 27, 2020). 'Pennsylvania First State to Partner with PlayPause Self-Exclusion Tool'. Casino.org. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
3. ^MembersArchived April 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, www.pgcb.state.pa.us
4. ^Ex officioArchived April 26, 2007, at the Wayback Machine members, www.pgcb.state.pa.us
5. ^'Merritt C. Reitzel – Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board'. gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
6. ^Thompson, Isaiah (January 7, 2009). 'Meet Your New Neighbor'. Philadelphia CityPaper. Archived from the original on March 27, 2009. Retrieved March 31, 2009.
7. ^'PGCB's Director of Compulsive and Problem Gambling Provides Lawmakers With Update on Agency's Assistance Efforts'. PGCB via Reuters. February 12, 2009. Retrieved April 23, 2009.^{[dead link]}
8. ^http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/058/chapter501a/chap501atoc.html
9. ^'Casino Gaming Benefits for Pennsylvanians'. Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Retrieved January 16, 2019.

Casino Control Commission Pa

External links[edit]

Pa Casino Gaming Commission