Pennsylvania is the most populous US state with legal, regulated online gambling in 2020. The omnibus expansion package Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law in 2017 authorized interactive gaming across multiple verticals — including lottery, casino, fantasy sports, sports betting, and poker. Pennsylvania passed a bill regulating both sports betting and online casinos. A number of casinos now offer retail sports betting, with online betting apps launching on May 31, 2019. All of the major bases are covered in terms of markets, ranging from the major professional leagues all.

• Pros Of Legalized Gambling
• When Did Pennsylvania Legalize Gambling Winnings
• When Did Pennsylvania Legalize Gambling Marijuana
• Will Georgia Legalize Gambling
• When Did Pennsylvania Legalize Gambling

Pennsylvania legalized gambling 5 years ago. Some reforms are now needed. Pennsylvania isn't going to hit the jackpot next year in property tax relief from our slots. Monday's announcement that. Is online poker legal in Pennsylvania? Tom Wolf signed bill H 271 into law on Oct. 30, 2017, online gambling became legal in Pennsylvania.This bill includes poker, casino table games, slots, and sports betting. That made Pennsylvania the fourth state to legalize online poker. Seven of the 13 casino license holders in Pennsylvania applied for licenses to operate online poker sites. PGRI re-posted an article released by the Competitive Enterprise Institute on its blog detailing the successful legalization of online gambling in Pennsylvania. This past Monday, October 30, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed a bill legalizing Internet gambling throughout the state. The move makes the Keystone State the fourth in the nation.

TOBYHANNA, Pa. (CBS) — Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is urging legislators to legalize the adult-use of marijuana. Pennsylvania officials say the legalization of adult-use cannabis will provide a new revenue stream to direct toward economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling additional funding for grants for small businesses.

Wolf was at The Mountain Center in Tobyhanna Tuesday, discussing the legalization of marijuana’s potential benefits.

READ MORE: Eastern State Penitentiary To Reopen To Public On Friday

He is urging the General Assembly to take up legislation regarding marijuana’s legalization which they have not done despite multiple requests from Wolf and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman this fall.

“This year, I again went to the General Assembly and asked them to make legalizing adult-use cannabis a priority for the fall as we work to find ways to overcome the economic hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Wolf said. “To date, there has been no movement to advance legislation. So, I’m here today to ask again, and to focus on two particular benefits of legalization – potential economic growth and much-needed restorative justice.”

Wolf, joined by state Rep. Maureen Madden and hemp farmer Eric Titus White, discussed how “legalizing cannabis offers the same potential for economic growth that the historic farm bill of 2018 did for hemp farmer following decades of government prohibition of the industry.”

Hemp, a once widespread crop in Pennsylvania, was cultivated in the state for more than 250 years. It was grown for seeds, fibers and extracts.

Hemp and marijuana are two different varieties of the same plant species, but hemp does not contain high levels of THC, which makes marijuana a controlled substance.

“Much of our knowledge about how to grow, process and use hemp was lost after industrial hemp was regulated and banned along with marijuana in the 1930s,” Wolf said. “And Pennsylvania lost the benefits of an industry with a long history of providing jobs and resources here in the commonwealth. When hemp and marijuana were banned, we didn’t just lose jobs, we lost decades of research opportunities, innovation and economic growth.”

READ MORE: WATCH LIVE: Philadelphia Officials To Provide COVID-19 Response Update

White says that his hemp farm helped provide him with economic opportunities and dig roots in his home state.

“The cannabis plant is capable of stimulating our economy, healing our soil, and bringing the focus back to natural medicine and natural farming,” White said.

Madden says she supports the Wolf administration’s efforts to introduce the legalization of adult recreational cannabis due to its potential to boost the Pennsylvania economy.

“I fully support the administration’s efforts to introduce the legalization of adult recreational cannabis in such a way that invests much-needed financial resources in our underserved communities and enacts restorative justice programs throughout the Commonwealth,” Madden said.

Aside from the economic growth opportunities that will be created by legalizing adult-use cannabis, criminalization laws have “disproportionately” harmed minority communities in Pennsylvania, officials said.

“Every year in Pennsylvania, another 20,000 people get cannabis-related criminal charges that can keep them from getting the jobs and housing they want,” said Fetterman. “It’s time we stop ruining people’s futures over something that’s already legal in several states and something that most Pennsylvanians don’t even think should be illegal.”

In 2018, Wolf signed the Clean Slate bill which allows for sealing records of certain low-level offenses if the person has been free from convictions for 10 years.

MORE NEWS:

Pros Of Legalized Gambling

FBI Arrests 2, Including New Jersey Man Roberto Minuta Who Served As Roger Stone's Bodyguard, In Capitol Riot

While that law can be applied to certain marijuana-related offenses, Wolf says there is “much more that needs to be done to reverse decades of injustice. And we need to start by decriminalizing cannabis and legalizing it for adult use.”

[toc]Pennsylvania could join Nevada with single-game sports betting, thanks to a law signed by Gov. Tom Wolf on Monday.

That bill authorized a myriad of new gaming options in the state, including online poker and casino games and regulation of daily fantasy sports. But it also sets up Pennsylvania to offer legal sports betting, should things break right in the near future.

The author of a standalone sports betting bill — Rep. Rob Matzie — offered this statement to ESPN’s David Purdum:

Statement from Pennsylvania Rep. @RobMatzie, who spearheaded the state's sports betting efforts: pic.twitter.com/JYsv5VtPzA

— David Payne Purdum (@DavidPurdum) October 30, 2017

Still, 2018 could be an optimistic timeframe for sports betting to happen in PA.

PA sports betting needs more than just the new law

Everything else PA just legalized on the gaming front needs nothing more to become law, from a purely legal standpoint. (Obviously, more goes into implementing the different aspects of the law, including licensing and writing of regulations.)

The same is not the case for the sports betting portion of the PA law, however. The law needs a change at the federal level to take effect. Currently, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) bans single-game wagering outside of Nevada.

That means a change to that law would need to come first. The quickest and most likely avenue to that is the New Jersey sports betting case in the US Supreme Court. A verdict declaring PASPA unconstitutional would allow PA to move forward right away.

Still, that decision is not likely until the spring of 2018, and that outcome is far from a given.

Here’s the language from the bill mentioning federal law:

The Board shall, when federal law is enacted or repealed or a federal court decision is filed that permits a state to regulate sports wagering, publish a notice in the Pennsylvania Bulletin certifying the enactment or repeal or the filing of the decision.

Short of a SCOTUS decision in New Jersey’s favor, PA would need Congress to repeal or amend PASPA for the sports betting law to take effect.

Delaware passed a law in 2009 attempting to legalize single-game wagering, but that was struck down in court because of PASPA. Delaware still offers parlay wagering legally.

What’s in the PA sports betting law?

More about the nuts and bolts of the law here, including analysis of timing and other provisions.

The bill includes a 36-percent tax rate on sports wagering revenue, which is a ridiculously high number for what is a low-margin gaming product to start out with. Lawmakers would be smart to rein that number by changing the law in 2018, before it takes effect. (The licensing fee is also a steep $10 million.)

Beyond that, the bill also provides for mobile and online sports betting — meaning it can take place outside of the state’s land-based gaming facilities. It also allows for wagering on professional and collegiate sports, potentially putting the state at odds with the NCAA.

Full sports betting language from the PA gaming bill here:

PA Sports Section

Where will you be able to bet on sports in PA?

The short answer: Potentially anywhere in the state.

Here’s the definition of “sports wagering” from the law (emphasis added):

“Sports wagering.” The business of accepting wagers on sporting events or on the individual performance statistics of athletes in a sporting event or combination of sporting events by any system or method of wagering, including over the internet through websites and mobile applications.

When Did Pennsylvania Legalize Gambling Winnings

Betting online

Because the statute allows for online sports betting, all you would need to bet is an internet connection or a mobile device with cell service. That means you would simply need to be within the state’s borders to legally place a bet; you don’t have to be a resident of the state.

You would still have to register an account in PA, and the logistics of how that will happen for sports bettors would still need to be worked out. And we still have no idea who will attempt to offer mobile/online wagering. But certainly some licensees would.

Betting at casinos

If you didn’t want to bet online, you would obviously be able to place bets at a physical location.

When Did Pennsylvania Legalize Gambling Marijuana

Where that will happen is still up in the air. The law allows any “slot machine licensee” in the state to apply for a “sports wagering certificate” at a cost of $10 million each. Because of the huge outlay of cash up front and the high tax rate, it’s not a guarantee that every licensee would buy into this, as written.

Will Georgia Legalize Gambling

But, if they all did, you could eventually place sports bets at all 12 of the state’s licensed casinos/racinos:

• Harrah’s Philadelphia, Chester
• Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course, Grantville
• The Meadows Racetrack and Casino, North Strabane Twp.
• Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, Wilkes-Barre
• Parx Casino and Racing, Bensalem
• Presque Isle Downs & Casino, Erie
• Mount Airy Casino Resort, Mt. Pocono
• Rivers Casino, Pittsburgh
• Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, Bethlehem
• SugarHouse Casino, Philadelphia
• Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin, Farmington
• Valley Forge Casino Resort, King of Prussia

There’s also another casino — Live! Philadelphia Casino and Hotel — that is planned. That’s in the city’s stadium district and would be a no-brainer for a sportsbook.

When Did Pennsylvania Legalize Gambling

The law even thinks of the fact that there is likely not space in some casinos, as constructed, to put a sportsbook. So it authorizes temporary books:

Temporary facilities.–the board may permit a sports wagering certificate holder to conduct sports wagering at a temporary facility that is physically connected to, attached to or adjacent to a licensed facility, as approved by the board, for a period not to exceed 18 months.