Revenue Dept Says More Than $1 Billion 

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board did a secret study and came out with very different numbers than everyone else. They said that the slot machines at the casinos will actually make $365 million a year less than the applicants had projected they would make. 

The Pennsylvania State Revenue Department says this is not so. According to them, they will actually bring in more than $1 billion a year for property tax relief, and question the findings of the board. They said that the study they performed looks at the worst possible outcome of bringing in slot machines, and argues that the case for the slot machines has gotten even stronger since they were first voted in back in 2004. 

The state says the amount will be more like $1.074 billion a year towards property taxes, out of $3.16 billion in slot machine revenue. The state will also get $610 million from one-time license fees from the casino operators. They say they used a very conservative estimate, and still came out with numbers higher than what the board is projecting.  Out of the total slot machine revenue, 54% of that revenue goes to the state.  

They also point out that the study the board did came from PricewaterhouseCoopers and that they had factored in competition that just will not exist. They took into consideration the kind of competition that would take place between all of the applicants for the slot machine licenses, not the actuality of only the ones that would receive licenses. They point out that since not everyone who has applied will be approved for a slot machine license, the study cannot be considered valid.

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