The good news just keeps flowing the way I see it.
Delaware has started on the road to table games with the first ones expected by January. Sports betting is pretty much a done deal. I scoped out some good football weekends and actually made a reservation (it’s easy to cancel) for the hotel at Dover Downs for the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Eagles-Redskins play at 1 and the Ravens play the Steelers at 8:30 on the Sunday night game. That would be fun to experience in a sports book so I might just give it a shot. The only bad thing is that poker won’t be up and running yet, but I can save that for March Madness.
Anyway, while I salivate over the possibility of expanded gambling in the First State, Pennsylvania steps up as expected. A bill for table games hit the House floor yesterday. A Senate version is expected soon as well. Everyone knew this was going to happen. I just hope it doesn’t get held up for too long, which you know it will.
Gov. Rendell is not down with making the move so soon, which will probably slow things down. Estimates for setting up the whole operation range from six to nine months, meaning the earliest you could probably play poker or blackjack in PA would be the summer of 2010. I would even think 2011 is a better bet. The gaming committee in the state house meets in a week so we will hopefully have some idea then where the plan will go.
Besides, Rendell favors the addition of video poker machines to ever bar and social club in the state over table games. They had at least one hearing on that, but no movement yet. Personally, I think the way to go is to put slots and video poker in the OTB facilities already taking racing bets, put video poker in private clubs and approve table games for the existing slot facilities.
But what do I know? I’m just a guy who wants to gamble on occasion.