Table games a step closer in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania lawmakers moved closer to bringing table games into the state’s casinos. The state’s House of Representatives spent more than eight hours Sunday debating the plan.

Lawmakers and the governor want to change the state law to allow casinos to add table games (blackjack, roulette, craps and poker).

The debate is expected to continue today, with a full House vote on an amended bill coming as soon as tomorrow.

The biggest debate surrounds taxes. In the latest House proposal, the gaming state tax would be 34 percent, with a host-county tax of 1 percent and a one-time licensing fee ranging from $7.5 million for resort casinos to $20 million for stand-alone casinos.

Any bill coming from the House would have to be merged with any plan coming out of the State Senate, where a bill proposing a one-time license fee of $10 million per casino and a 12 percent tax rate is being debated.

Analysts said if Pennsylvania adds table games, it would be bad news for Atlantic City, especially Boyd Gaming’s Borgata resort.

“The Borgata has been generating $22 million in table game revenue per month over the last year and we think the new legislation could impact results by up to 20 percent,” Janney Montgomery Scott gaming analyst Brian McGill told investors this morning. “On an annualized basis this could negatively impact Borgata by up to $50 million in revenue.”

Atlantic City also faces competition in Philadelphia, where construction is beginning on the city’s first casino. Also, construction could begin by 2010 on a casino in Baltimore and New York State to award the license for the Aqueduct Casino in New York City this year.

Link to Post-Gazette story: www.post-gazette.com/pg/09278/1003165-454.stm"