Senate approves gambling changes

MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. - A bill that has become a political football bounced out of the Senate on the strength of Republican votes Saturday as lawmakers have fought bitterly over how and whether to amend the state's four-month-old slot-machine gambling law. With the Legislature attempting to close its two-year session before Sunday, the bill's prospects in the House remained unclear. House and Senate Republicans, who largely opposed the original gambling bill that became law in July, have been unable to resolve a difference over a requirement in current law that slot-machine manufacturers sell through a Pennsylvania-based distributor. The bill passed the Senate on a 28-19 party-line vote. Democrats, who supplied most of the votes to pass the original legislation, say the bill carries gifts for the gambling industry and could open a "garage door" to public corruption. "This is an atrocious piece of legislation," said Sen. Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia, a key architect of the original gambling law. "And worse than that, it is a deceptive piece of legislation." Republicans sought the high ground on the bill, citing its provisions for greater gambling oversight by the attorney general and a new, although not substantially different, prohibition on lawmakers' ownership of gambling interests. The bill is "the first step in cleaning up our new gaming law," said Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, an outspoken gambling opponent. The measure would remove the current requirement that slot-machine manufacturers go through local distributors. Senate Republicans say that no other gambling state has a similar requirement and a middleman would simply increase costs for slots licensees. Senate Democrats and House lawmakers have tried to maintain the requirement, saying distributorships would create jobs in the state. The state's fledgling gambling commission has yet to meet, hire an employee or issue any licenses to operate a slots parlor. The law, which authorized as many as 61,000 slot machines at 14 gambling halls, was designed to tax gambling revenue in an effort to generate $1 billion to lower residential property taxes. The ping-ponging bill originally gained steam, and then amendments, in July after lawmakers became worried that the public believed they had reserved a 1 percent ownership stake in slots parlors for themselves. They said a 1 percent ownership allowance was designed to accommodate stock ownership held in a fund over which the owner has no control, such as a mutual or pension fund. The Republican-sponsored change would dictate an absolute ban on ownership in a company that operates or supplies a Pennsylvania gambling hall, but maintained a provision for mutual funds and pension funds under which an unlimited ownership of a gambling interest would not be prohibited. The House has barred members from owning a gambling interest, and Rendell issued an identical order for members of his administration. The Senate has no such rule. In casino states Nevada and West Virginia, there are no restrictions on public officials owning gaming companies. The pending bill also would dramatically narrow bans on which public and party officials, and which of their family members, could own an interest in or work for a gambling enterprise. Senate Democrats complained bitterly that the legislation would significantly widen the possibility for public corruption, saying, for instance, that it would allow the attorney general, state police commissioner, and commissioners in counties hosting a slots parlor to own a gambling hall. Commissioners on large landowning authorities, such as the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority and the Delaware River Port Authority, also would become exempt from the ownership ban. The bill also would permit the owner of a slots parlor to also manufacture or supply slot machines. And it maintains an earlier House amendment that would remove a ban on owning a majority stake in more than one slots parlor - a nod to Penn National Gaming Inc., which owns two horse-racing tracks, each of which likely will host a slots parlor.