For some time now, Rep. George Dunbar has been trying to push forward HB 2078, a piece of legislation needed for Pennsylvania to move toward inclusion in MSIGA, the multi-state compact for online poker.
Most recently, the bill was not included in the state budget, leaving Dunbar to look for other ways to make multi-state poker a reality for PA online poker players.
A new possibility has arisen now, as a bill to start regulating and taxing skill games in PA, an issue that has been heavily debated over the last year, maybe up for discussion soon.
Dunbar hopes to attach HB 2078 as an amendment to the skill games bill, which would allow PCGB to move forward with applying the Keystone State for membership in the MSIGA.
According to an interview Dunbar gave Poker Industry PRO, the idea is to have revenue from skill games funding public transportation in the Philadelphia region, and if the plans don’t change, adding HB 2078 to the bill should be feasible.
At this time, MSIGA includes New Jersey, Michigan, Nevada, Delaware, and West Virginia, of which the last two states don’t have any active online poker operators participating in the shared player pool.
With Pennsylvania online poker being one of the largest markets in the country, its addition to the player pool would likely be of great consequence to the overall network, giving poker operators like WSOP, PokerStars, BetMGM Poker and even BetRivers Poker when it launches, a great boost.
HB 2078 Is Still Active
The original plan Dunbar had for HB 2078 was to have it attached to a code bill, the outline for state’s spending in the General Fund.
The state budget, worth nearly $50 billion, was signed by Gov. Shapiro on July 11, but did not include HB 2078. According to some sources, the bill was not introduced after plans to regulate skill games fell apart due to Supreme Court not making a ruling on their legality just yet.
The General Assembly was late with passing the budget for the third year straight, and bigger issues took a lot of discussion time, leaving HB 2078 in the dust and out of the discussion.
Now, the bill’s best hopes of getting signed into power soon rest in the upcoming skill games bill, with HB 2078 added as an amendment. The bill itself is still active and sits on the desk of the House Gaming Oversight Committee, which means there is still hope to see PA given the green light to apply for MSIGA in 2024.
Gov. Shapiro Could Sign an Executive Order
According to Pokerfuse, there are two ways in which HB 2078 could move forward from these point. One would include the bill itself being passes, possibly as an amendment to the skill games bill, and the other is for Gov. Josh Shapiro to sign an Executive Order.
Shapiro, who Dunbar said supports the bill in principle, could sign an Executive Order and move things along instead of waiting for approval from the House.
Dunbar himself has more hopes for the bill being passed along with the skill games regulation, saying: “I was told there were things that were supposed to be part of a budget package that were undone — one of them being skill games. So, if we go anywhere into gaming, it presents an opportunity to add the multi-state agreement to a skill games bill as an amendment, as opposed to running [HB 2078] itself.”
“I’m not saying that’s going to happen, but barring running [HB 2078] straight up itself, that’s the other alternative. I guess I would say 50/50.”
