Pa. hits $1 billion mark in slots loot
HARRISBURG — Revenue from Pennsylvania's fledgling slot-machine gambling industry has surpassed the $1 billion mark, three years after the state legalized the devices as a way to cut taxes and inject new life into its equine industry.
Through midnight Wednesday, the state had collected $1,001,248,572, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
Of the $1 billion, more than half, or $550 million, came from the licensing fees that each of the 11 licensees have paid. The rest came from the state's 55 percent cut of the revenues from the 10,130 slot machines at the five casinos now operating.
"I think it's the most significant benchmark we've reached so far in terms of the major goals" of the state's July 2004 slot-machine law, board Chairman Mary DiGiacomo Colins said.
All five slots parlors now open are at horse-racing tracks after the first one, Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, opened last November. A sixth, the state's first freestanding slots parlor, is tentatively scheduled to open Monday in the Pocono Mountains.
The others, including two in Philadelphia and one in Pittsburgh, are expected to open by the end of 2009.
The largest share of the first $1 billion, $390 million, is set aside to help lower property tax bills and cut Philadelphia's wage tax. However, most people won't see any benefit on their tax bills until next year.
Of the rest, $90 million has been distributed so far to cut last year's property tax bills paid by more than 300,000 low-income elderly residents who applied through a pre-existing rebate program, according to the Revenue Department. The state has set aside $200 million for the rebates.
About $98 million is earmarked for purses and jockeys at the horse-racing tracks. About $41 million is set aside to help pay for major civic development projects, including a new sports arena in Pittsburgh and an expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Almost $33 million is going to municipalities and counties where slots parlors are located.
Smaller pots of money go toward school districts, municipalities and counties that encompass state lands; police crackdowns on illegal gambling; grants for volunteer fire companies and ambulance squads; and programs for compulsive gambling treatment.
About $84 million has gone toward the state's regulatory efforts over the casinos while about $102 million will be allocated at the end of the month.
