Pennsylvania continues supporting online poker

Chairman of the Gaming Oversight Committee, Representative John Payne, has been one of the main supporters for the online gaming industry in the state of Pennsylvania. For over a year, the representative has been pushing his plan for Pennsylvania online gambling market; Pennsylvania seems to be on track to become the 4th gambling state in the US, while many others have not come to any agreement yet, like California. Many other political figures have been also trying to push the envelope to make things easier for a potential State online gambling regulation. But this has been one of the most important weeks for Pennsylvania online gaming industry as the House Gaming Oversight Committee of Pennsylvania has recently passed HR 140, resolution that is forcing Congress to act against RAWA regulations (Restoration of America’s Wire Act), obsolete legislation that has no room for online gambling. The House Gaming Oversight Committee of Pennsylvania will be not only discussing the decriminalization of the online gaming industry, but also the development of the online gambling market. HR 140 main target is showing the destructive effects that RAWA legislation has brought to the gambling market. Several hearings are scheduled for the next coming weeks with interesting subjects to discuss like the three online poker bills that are still being evaluated; the state wants to prepare the path for the soon-to-come online gambling industry, in particular the online poker market.

The Poker Players Alliance recently announced that the Committee had moved forward to passing the regulation. The Executive Director of the PPA John Pappas commented: “The passage of this resolution sends a strong and clear message to the U.S. Congress that Pennsylvania has the right to make their own legislative decisions about licensing and regulating online poker without the partisan influence of Washington politics. Sands' testimony today is a house of cards that is more about fear mongering than providing the Committee with meaningful insights on how to best protect consumers. It is clear that they are not really concerned about Pennsylvania citizens' safety, but rather the corporation's bottom line. The PPA will continue to share the facts with Pennsylvania lawmakers on why a licensed and regulated online gaming market is the best and only way to ensure citizens are protected through a system that is accountable to regulators and the government". Kevin Mullaly, vice president of government relations for Gaming Laboratories International, gaming testing and certification services firm, commented: "Online gambling is simply a modernization of the delivery of content that your land-based casinos already have the legal right to offer". But the main issue, geo location techniques to create online borders, was pretty easy for GeoComply, firm that showed the high level of security measures we are dealing with nowadays: "We have it pretty much down to a building level. You can see what part of Starbucks you logged in from and, yes, we also know what you did last summer."