Legalized gambling in Pennsylvania began with a $63.8 million loan from the taxpayers. It will soon be time to begin paying that back, and ? because all costs of the Gaming Control Board are borne by the gaming industry ? the bill will be going to the casinos.
Like a table of overindulgent diners, the casinos have been squabbling with the Gaming Control Board over how the bill should be divvied up.
Some of them came late to the table, after all; then again, what they took from the feast may not correlate directly with how long they?ve been there.
Today, the Gaming Control Board decided how the tab would be split.
In what board member Kenneth Trujillo termed ?a Solomonic proposal,? the board decided both time at the table and rate of consumption would factor in.
Each casino?s percentage of the overall revenue since casinos opened will be averaged with that casino?s percentage of the previous year?s revenue to determine the percentage of the loan it will have to repay.
The rate will be recalculated each year to account for fluctuations in performance and new casinos opening, but the bottom line, as commissioner Gary Sojka put it, is the total loan will be paid back.
The loan is payable over 10 years, beginning with the opening of the 11th casino, which most likely will be the Valley Forge resort casino sometime next year.
?Everybody may not be happy, but folks will be less unhappy than if we chose one of the extremes,? said board chairman Greg Fajt.
In other business, the board approved a lease for permanent meeting space in Strawberry Square. Until now, board meetings have been held in random office buildings around Harrisburg, making it a challenge for people ? especially those from out of town ? who want to attend the proceedings.
?It was difficult for people to find meetings at the Penn Center, and parking was not good there,? said Gaming Board spokesman Doug Harbach. With parking garage space attached to the familiar downtown Strawberry Square location, the new lease will be a ?win ? win,? he said.
Harbach said he hopes it will allow him to stream the board meetings on the agency website.
The new leased space will also house the board?s office of hearings and appeals, which administrators said would save about $35,000 a year compared to the rate currently being paid to house that office.
Chairman Fajt said it is the former Smith Barney space on the second floor of Strawberry Square, to the left of the escalator near the food court.?
Source: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/06/gaming_control_board_sets_form.html
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