Gov's Video Poker Support Tour Underway

Pennsylvania Governor Rendell is promoting his video poker proposal this week with a series of speeches and he is getting strong support from a key ally in the General Assembly. House Speaker Keith McCall, a Carbon County Democrat, says the idea of funding college tuition breaks through a system of legalized video poker machines appeals to him. However, he says the House will need to hold a series of hearings on the matter, and that he has a lot of questions about how the machines would be regulated. McCall says, “You can't have just people in a piecemeal basis going out checking these machines. So there's going to have to be some form of central registry where all the data is kept on these machines. And I think when we move on that we're going to have to look at some centralized form of enforcement to make sure that the monies collected are going to where they're supposed to be going.” Critics say they're concerned legalized machines would take revenue away from casinos and lottery ticket sales. Rendell wants the General Assembly to pass the initiative as quickly as possible. The state would take 50% of the proceeds from every machine.