Under orders from state lawmakers, Pennsylvania is all up again to seek a mini-casino license auction on September 2, in search of a cash for a treasury that has been starved of tax collections during this pandemic due to the shutdowns imposed to contain the same.
The auction was scheduled on Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board after the budget legislation that passed in May required another auction. However, the situation now is permitting those people to bid who have never even bid in seven prior auctions.
Moreover, the people who are eligible to bid include the owners of the state’s licensed casinos wherein the bidding will come under an aggressive 2017 state law to expand gambling.
This point definitely focuses more on authorizing auctions of 10 mini-casino licenses, allowing the holder to function with up to 750 slot machines and nearly 40 table games.
Bidders need to ponder upon many points during the process, one of which is to submit a prospective site for the casino, which should approximately be 40 miles away from another casino location.
In addition to that, it has been noted that the state tax rate on casino revenue is among the nation’s highest and thus the minimum bids are now set at $7.5 million.
Bidders don’t have much to make a proper choice as what they are left with now is the rural northern Pennsylvania that includes a stretch along the Ohio border between Pittsburgh and Erie.
Also, bidders will be allowed to get their hands on certain smaller cities such as Altoona, Williamsport, and State College.
According to the latest state statistics, the slot-machine play which is the dominant money-maker has been off by about 25% for much of the last four months due to the coronavirus shutdowns, making it almost $7 billion in the 11 months through June.
