Pennsylvania v. Philadelphia

With Pennsylvania busting through all predicted estimates on take for the state, there is no doubt that gaming in the state has become a major success. It’s been less than six months since the first slot machines began ringing up revenue, and expansion through the state has been going smoothly.

Until now. A major brouhaha is brewing between the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) and the Philadelphia City Council that is putting the future of a pair of yet to be opened casinos within the Philadelphia city limits at stake. The City council has passed an ordinance seeking a ballot referendum on May 15th to vote on changing Philadelphia’s Home Rule charter. If passed, it would restrict the location of legally approved slots casinos from operating within 1,500 feet of a residentially zoned district, religious building, school or public recreational facility. That would make it virtually impossible to build the casinos in the tightly packed jurisdiction. The PGCB said it would also further delay property tax relief and the new job creation.

To prevent the initiative from being voted in the PGCB has filed suit with the State Supreme Court challenging the ordinance. Board Chairman Tad Decker says the ordinance is illegal since the Gaming Act clearly provides the Board with the authority to locate slot machine facilities.

“This ballot issue is being sold by the Philadelphia City Council to the citizens of Philadelphia as a way to take control of the locations of slots facilities, when in reality it is designed to halt the construction of these facilities along with the resulting jobs, economic development and property tax relief that will be generated,” Decker said in a statement issued by the PGCB.

Decker said the Board has an obligation to enforce the Gaming Act now rather than later. He states that losses to citizens due to delays in opening the two Philadelphia Slots facilities would be $140 million every six months, tax revenues that can never be regained.

“We cannot sit idly by and must take this action now because placing this question on the ballot is a waste of time and taxpayer dollars,” he added.

Daniel Hunter of Casino-Free Philadelphia, an association of civic groups that are seeking to stop casino development, told the Philadelphia Daily News the PGCB is operating outside its auspices. "Our right to vote is under attack by an out-of-control board. What we have here is the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board doing the casinos' dirty work. Our position is, we have the right to vote."

City Councilman Frank DiCicco, whose district takes in the sites for both casinos, said the board was trying to stop Philadelphians from even expressing their opinion.

"The gaming board is doing what the state had already done, which is to try to put a gag order on the city of Philadelphia," he said. "What has caused a lot of this anger - not only on the riverfront but throughout the city - is the consistent way in which the state has made decisions for Philadelphia without giving Philadelphia any say in it."

Meanwhile PGCB Executive Director Anne Neeb says the ballot effort is not only designed to keep slots facilities out of the city but provides a false sense of hope to those who believe enactment of this referendum would override the Board’s legal ability to locate the slots facilities as provided in the Gaming Act.

“This ordinance has the practical effect to completely prohibit gaming in the city of Philadelphia,” says Neeb. “In reality, this attempted action by City Council and anti-casino forces is not only illegal and unconstitutional, but will deprive Philadelphians and all Commonwealth citizens of new jobs and significant tax revenues.”

The Board took this action against the ordinance, passed by the Philadelphia City Council over a Mayoral veto on March 29, 2007, for a number of reasons including the fact that it deprives the Board of its legal authority under the state gaming law to determine the locations of licensed slots facilities in that city, and because the city did not follow both its own procedural requirements and state laws governing the adoption of zoning laws in Philadelphia.

So far this year, more than $100 million in tax dollars has been secured from almost $2 billion in wagers. The state has just four of 14 planned casinos operating thus far.

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