An American State is taking steps to modernise its attitudes towards poker. A bill legalising gambling within Pennsylvania was introduced to the legislative committee by Representative Tina Davis last Monday. House Bill 1235, as it is known has been pushed forward Davies and co-sponsored by eleven other Pennsylvania legislators including Mark Cohen, Ed Neilson, George Dunbar, Thomas Caltagirone, Rosita Youngblood, Dom Costa, William Kortz, Vanessa Lowery Brown, Rose Marie Swanger, John Galloway and John Sabatina.
Should the bill be approved by the House Gaming Oversight Committee, proceedings will move to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives where it will heard and voted on.
Existing land-based casinos would benefit significantly from House Bill 1235 as it offers those with existing slot-machine licenses to apply for Internet gaming licenses. Such licenses define Â"internet gameÂ" as a Â"table game, slot machine, or any other game approved by the regulation of Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to be suitable for the use of Internet gaming activities.Â" Therefore online poker would not be the only format to benefit from the proposed deregulation. There would still be restrictions on lottery games, bingo, keno and small chance games however.