The Pennsylvania Tavern Association in the US is urging the House Gaming Oversight Committee to approve a measure that would legalise small games of chance at the 8,000 taverns in the state, which employ 200,000 people.
The revenue generated by House bill 2379 would be sliced up several ways, including a new 30 per cent levy to go into state coffers.
That tax, the Tavern Association estimated, could generate up to $100m a year and could go to the state’s general fund to ease the $1.2bn deficit it is facing. Another 20 per cent of the take from the small games of chance would be earmarked for local charities such as recreational or athletic programmes. Tavern owners would keep 48 per cent of the small games profits and the other two per cent would go for administrative costs of the state revenue department and state police.
Under the bill, "the taverns will pay an extra state tax on their gross revenues, while clubs and other volunteer charitable organisations that already offer small games of chance will not."
