Maine and Hawaii: More US States Mull Legal Poker Games
Written by Renee K | Monday, February 8th, 2010
The floodgates of legalized poker have definitely opened on a national scale in the United States. Two more states have decided to jump on the bandwagon and are mulling the option of allowing table games to run at state casinos in a bid to bring in money to their coffers.
Maine, situated in the North East of the country, is still trying to recover from the news that the government plans to cut back nearly $440 million in programs after a tough budget revision. Looking for ways to bring in more revenue, the state is considering legalizing table games such as poker. This will be done through the Hollywood Slots company which currently runs a machine gambling casino.
According to Maine’s plan, Hollywood Slots will pay the government a $5 million license fee to run the table games, and the state will see around $1.4 million in revenues from the scheme. Hollywood Slots currently generates $9 million to Maine’s coffers.
And while Main mulls its way to a legalized poker industry, Hawaii is also planning on cashing in from tourist dollars by allowing the creation of casinos in some of its major cities.
If the Hawaii plan comes about, Hawaiians themselves will not be allowed to take part in the gaming action.
It seems that more and more US states are turning to the option of funding their expenses with poker and other gaming formats on a weekly basis.
Delaware and Pennsylvania have recently smoothed out their own gambling laws and several other states have a legalized poker industry in the pipeline.
States know that if they don’t offer poker choices, their citizens will simply cross the state line to play elsewhere, and they themselves will lose out on the revenue.
It is believed that once the majority of states have in place a legal poker and casino infrastructure, it is only a matter of time that laws will be adopted on a national scale, beginning with the scrapping of the controversial UIGEA.
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· Written by Renee K · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
