Many of the casinos have already received their licenses to add the table games to the casinos, and the games are expected to be incorporated by summer. The final steps are currently being taken to bring these table games into Pennsylvania casinos.
One update from the industry had enlightened players of the fact that the first wave of trainees has recently completed the requisite dealer school. These newly trained dealers have been trained in the game of blackjack. In order to keep the game flowing and fair, these new dealers were required to take their education to a gambler’s point of view.
A primary reason for the legalization of table games was not only for the tax revenue for the state, but also for the creation of jobs. One casino, the Mount Airy Casino Resort, has announced that they expect to hire roughly 500 new employees in order to bring the table games to fruition. Of these new jobs, 330 will be full time while the remaining will stay part time. Dealers, housekeeping, restaurant staff, and security and surveillance staff are all expected to be hired.
The Pennsylvania Casinos are expecting many of these new trainees to be hired off the bat.
Currently, there are nine casinos operating in Pennsylvania. Many of these are expected to have their table games by summer, as the processes to bring table games into these casinos has been moving forward rapidly. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has been holding hearings for for the past two months in order to move the process along.
The taxes from the new table games are meant to help alleviate property taxes and fuel public projects. The Consol Energy Center, the future arena for the Pittsburgh Penguins, is currently being funded in part by the taxes collected from one casino, particularly Rivers Casino.
Pennsylvania online casinos had not been legalized by the statutes that brought table games into the state’s casinos. Thus, no tax dollars will be paid into Pennsylvania by the online gaming centers.