A Needed Amendment to PA Senate Bill 352.

Legislation is working its way through the Pennsylvania Legislature to modernize the racing rules in the state which have not been updated in over 20 years according to the bill's sponsor, State Senator Elder Vogel.  SB352  merges the thoroughbred and harness racing commissions into one, mandates medication rules, and well a lot of technocrat jumble which comprises this bill of 168 pages (to which you are welcome to read).

One thing I see here is  the opportunity to get RUS recognized.  Currently standardbred/harness racing is defined in this bill as racing with a sulky.  Now would be the time to get the bill amended to include RUS as part of the definition of standardbred racing and where else it may need to be updated.  If not updated, it may be not be possible to have parimutuel RUS events because the bill does not allow standardbred and thoroughbred track operators from having a license to conduct racing of the other breed.  The reason the bill would need to be amended is the bill has passed out of the Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee.

If RUS racing is not added to the racing code now, when would it happen?


As if we didn't see this coming, Pennsylvania is proposing Internet Gaming for their casinos.  Governor Christie was counting on out-of-staters coming to New Jersey to gamble within the state.  Should Pennsylvania adopt online gambling, rest assured Pennsylvania gamblers will go home to gamble, reducing some of the revenue being received in New Jersey.  As mentioned initially, once one state has online gaming, it is just a matter of time till other states adopt it, once again making a product a commodity.