Seven were reserved for ‘racetrack casinos’ (a.k.a.

A total of fourteen locations would be able to pursue a license. This law made slot machines legal for the first time in Pennsylvania. Racetracks were hardly making enough money to stay afloat in the early 2000s, so lawmakers scripted the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act, passed in 2004. 2004 – Slot Machines to Benefit Racetracks This legislation paved the way for organizations – especially charitable, non-profits like churches and youth sports booster clubs – to host other small-time games of chance, including pull-tabs, punchboards, raffles, 50/50 drawings, pools, etc. In 1988, the state passed the Pennsylvania Local Option Small Games of Chance Act as an extension of the PA Bingo Law. The Pennsylvania Bingo Law was passed in 1981, giving organizations the right to host bingo games as fund raisers. Since then, the PA Lottery has adopted a multitude of ticket options: Pick 2, Pick 3, Pick 4, Pick 5, Cash 5, Match 6, Treasure Hunt, Cash4Life, plus the nationally operated Mega Millions and Powerball lotteries. Tickets became so popular the state harvested $57.7 million in the first year nearly double their projections. In the first six months, four players won $1 million. It cost $0.50, and offered weekly prizes of $50,000, and periodic $1,000,000 prizes. The first lottery ticket was sold in March 1972. The next big breakthrough in legalized gambling came by way of the Pennsylvania Lottery in 1971, via the passage of Act 91. Four more tracks have opened since – two in the 1970s, and two more in 2007 – bringing the current total to six. Pocono Downs (now The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono) opened in 1965, and from there the industry was quite literally “off to the races”. This led to the construction of PA’s first horse track, Meadows Racetrack, completed in 1963. Pari-mutuel betting on horse races was made legal in 1959 by the Race Horse Industry Reform Act. That was the year the Keystone State rewrote the laws to permit their very first form of legal gaming.

Which brings us to the start of our 60-year journey into… The History of Pennsylvania Gambling Laws It took nearly three decades for Pennsylvania’s lawmakers to follow in the footsteps of Florida the first state to legalize pari-mutuel betting on horse races in 1931. This has historically led to latent political support for anything of questionable morality particularly anything that revolved around gambling.

The state’s population has always represented a blend of the traditionally religious, versus the rapacious modernists. Pennsylvania has never been known as a pioneer of gambling legislation.

Six Decades of Pennsylvania Gambling Laws, Past and Present.

Pa online gambling timeline