Rendell: Table Games Could Soon Be OK'd

PHILADELPHIA - Table games, like poker and black jack and roulette, may soon be legal at Pennsylvania slots casinos.

That gaming expansion is good news and bad, Fox 29's Bruce Gordon reported.

Gov. Ed Rendell told Gordon on Wednesday that he'll meet with legislative leaders in Harrisburg on Monday, to break a legislative logjam over table games- and expects to have a bill on his desk, by the end of next week.

Asked for his thoughts on adding table games, Rendell said, "Well, I think it's a little premature."

"I would have liked to have seen us have a couple more years to study the impact of slots," the governor continued. "But given the fact that we needed a billion dollars in recurring revenue, given the fact that the legislature did not want to do other taxes, broad-based taxes, it was the only option. And that's why I'm going to sign it, if it has the right precautions built in."

That's not the news folks in Atlantic City want to hear.

Casino revenues in A.C. have been falling ever since slots parlors opened in Pennsylvania. New Jersey gaming revenue year-to-date is down more than 14 percent compared to last year.

The recession is partly to blame, but slots competition from Pennsylvania is also a big factor.

So how will the casino resort counter this new threat to its economic existence?

The chair of jersey's Casino Control Commission told Gordon on Wednesday afternoon that she and her colleagues will be fighting this new threat aggressively.

"You know it's obviously going to have an impact on Atlantic City. I don't think you could find anyone who says it wouldn't," commission Chairwoman Linda Kassekert said. "But, that being the case, I think you have to remember that Atlantic City has more casinos concentrated in about what you could describe as a cul-de-sac than any other place, with the exception of Las Vegas. So I think that that is part of the appeal of Atlantic City. And, of course, we have the one thing that Pennsylvania will never have, and that's a beach and a boardwalk."

Rendell said adding table games to the slots already being played will generate revenue to support Pennsylvania's state-related universities: Temple, Penn State, Pitt and Lincoln University.

All four of those institutions are still waiting for their appropriations, despite the end of Pennsylvania's state budget stalemate.

Money that aids their budgets was not included in the budget bills signed by Gov. Ed Rendell on Friday, more than three months after the start of the fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania, which is not a state-related school, also stands to receive a substantial chunk of the $730 million in discretionary funding for universities, hospitals and museums that is on hold in the House.

Lawmakers in Harrisburg are still fighting over the initial fee and the taxes to be paid by casino operators on table games.