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Pennsylvania Board Rules Concerns Experts

PENNSYLVANIA – As reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer: "A newly enacted law that will bring slot machines to Pennsylvania in the years ahead is meant, its authors say, to insulate regulators both from partisan politics and the gaming industry itself.

"It stipulates, for instance, that members of the Gaming Control Board - and their immediate families - cannot own any part of the regulated companies or take gaming-related jobs.

"But the law differs from statutes in New Jersey and other states in a few key respects, including one that causes some concern for experts in gambling regulation.

"That element is the structure of the new board, and the length of terms of its seven members.

"…Members' terms are on the short side compared with the rest of the country: two years for the four members appointed by top Republican and Democratic legislative leaders; three years for the three named by the governor.

"…'Longer terms definitely are a better idea,' said David Schwartz, who manages the Gaming Studies Research Center at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

"Christopher Craig, who helped draft the Pennsylvania law as legal counsel to State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Phila.), said the shorter terms would allow for the quick removal of problematic members.

"…In addition, the board's voting rules, which require virtual unanimity on most decisions, are intended to 'remove partisanship and encourage consensus,' he said.

"…'It sounds like a permanent solution to a temporary political problem,' said I. Nelson Rose, a gambling-law expert at Whittier Law School in California.

"…In Pennsylvania, the Bureau of Investigations and Enforcement will be part of the Gaming Control Board, although it is to operate independently.

"Academics and former gaming regulators are divided over whether keeping the two functions separate amounts to a welcome safeguard or an unneeded layer of bureaucracy. When the investigators are honest and aggressive, they say, the structure is of little concern…"

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