LISTED BELOW IS AN EXCERPT FROM AN EDITORIAL ON PHILLY.COM BY OPPONENTS OF ONLINE GAMBLING.AS LEGISLATION GROWS MORE REALISTIC, THESE PEOPLE WILL PLAY ANY CARD THEY HAVE TO STOP IT. THIS WEEK IN GAMBLING HAS PUBLISHED THIS SO THAT OUR READERS ARE EDUCATED ON THE PROPAGANDA OF THESE PEOPLE.
Online gaming in Pennsylvania, currently under consideration in Harrisburg, may cannibalize traditional gaming. Extensive brick-and-mortar cannibalization already happened in New Jersey years back and recent reports suggest land-based casino floors saw a decrease in take in April, 2017 compared with April, 2016. Some data suggest that visit-trips to Atlantic City itself are declining. Today, take a short trip down the Atlantic City Expressway to see what happens when a new wealth of brick-and-mortar casinos appear within a two-hours’ drive. The resort is suffering and the landscape is riddled with abandoned buildings and sunk costs that will likely never be recovered.
Pennsylvania is now considering a tax on online fantasy sports, with its different target market, but that has no real effect on revenues at the brick-and-mortar casino locations because fantasy sports has offerings that are uniquely different, popular, and will help boost state coffers. Taking advantage of this revenue stream makes sense. Computer tablet gaming and standard online gambling, however, are indeed redundant offerings that will likely shift revenues from one gambling location to another and will not focus much on growing revenues or attracting new gamers to Pennsylvania businesses.
While online gaming development certainly creates jobs, as the industry argues, those jobs may not necessarily be localized to Pennsylvania. Additionally, online jobs provide little benefit to local economies. With the ubiquity and affordability of devices to access online gaming, gamers find themselves with the ability to engage in risky behaviors with ever greater ease. This leads to the state becoming far too dependent on potentially regressive and dangerous behaviors as revenue generators.
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