Be wary
The year was 2010. Pennsylvania was still struggling to pull out of the recession. Faced with a $3.2 billion budget deficit, all sorts of proposals to increase revenues were being studied.
One of them was sponsored by state Rep. Bill DeWeese, who at the time was representing all of Greene County and parts of Fayette and Washington counties.
DeWeese introduced legislation, adding table games to the state’s casinos. Pointing to a study by the Innovation Group, DeWeese said legalizing table games would create more than 10,000 jobs.
The thought was that table games would require more workers than slot machines, with the Innovation Group estimating each table would create eight to 12 jobs at salaries nearing $40,000.
With the job prospects generating all sorts of enthusiasm, the legislation passed the state Legislature later that year, and all of Pennsylvania’s 12 casinos now have table games.
However, it turns out the job gains were more than a little exaggerated. State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said a study by his agency showed that the actual number of table games jobs created was 6,156, approximately 40 percent less than predicted.
Of that total, the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh has 617 table games workers while the Meadows Casino in Washington County and the Lady Luck Casino in Wharton Township have 332 and 183 table game workers, respectively.
Overall, the state’s 12 casinos employ approximately 17,000 people
While acknowledging that the legislation did create a number of jobs, DePasquale said the state Legislature should be more careful in the future when hearing talk about new jobs.
“Going forward, this is a lesson for the General Assembly to more cautiously review job creation projections and estimates related to any legislation under consideration in the future,” said DePasaqule.
We couldn’t agree more. That’s especially timely as the state begins talks about legalizing Internet gambling. Cold, hard facts will be needed not emotional, unproven pitches about how gambling revenues can be used to cut taxes.
You can bet that Internet gambling proponents will be doing a lot of talking about increased revenues for the state.
But everyone should be wary of exaggerated numbers. Burned once, state lawmakers will have no excuse for getting scorched again.
Meanwhile, DePasquale said in another audit, his department found that about $8 million of casino revenue intended for grants to help local law enforcement officials battle illegal gambling instead went to the state’s general fund.
The audit blamed the problem on tight restrictions for the grants, noting only six grants were requested and awarded over two yeas. They totaled $1,041,000, about one-fourth of the $4 million allocated for that program during that time.
“These funds can be better spent helping our law enforcement agencies than being turned over to the commonwealth,” DePasquale said. “I strongly encourage PGCB to work with the governor and the general assembly to amend the gaming law as it pertains to these local law enforcement grants to allow a wider use of the funds to protect our communities.”
You can’t make this up. The commonwealth has funds available but can’t find a way to spend them.
Something like this could only happen in Pennsylvania. Let’s hope the gaming law is amended so that more municipalities can use the funds.
At some point, common sense must prevail.