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<p>It&#8217;s time for Pennsylvania to get in the game.</p><p>We&#8217;re talking about legal sports betting.</p><p>Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal ban, and now all 50 states are free to join Nevada by licensing sports betting.</p><p>Delaware and New Jersey are already allowing casinos to take wagers. Other states will soon follow, trust us.</p><p>Yes, we know that technically casinos in Pennsylvania are now able to acquire sports gambling licenses.</p><p>But with a $10 million price tag on top of the highest tax on sports betting in the country (34 percent), we don&#8217;t expect any here to make the move.</p><p>Experts seem to agree, according to a recent USA Today article.</p><p>&#8220;There is a huge black market that pays zero tax,&#8221; Greg Carlin, CEO of Rush Street Gaming, whose company operates the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh and the SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia, told USA Today Sports. &#8220;If legal sports betting is going to be a regulated and successful business, the tax rates can&#8217;t be so high that it makes it impossible to compete with the black market.&#8221;</p><p>The price tag needs to come down for the good of everyone.</p><p>Let&#8217;s face it. A good deal of sports betting is already done in the state, and much of it right here in Luzerne County. You would have to be living under a rock not to realize that.</p><p>According to the Pittsburgh Tribune, people nationwide place $150 billion in illegal bets each year. And we wouldn&#8217;t be surprised to learn illegal gambling in Luzerne County is a multimillion-dollar-a-year business. Can any of us honestly claim that we don&#8217;t have at least a few friends who make the occasional bet on a professional sporting event?</p><p>S0 why not take all that money out of the hands of illegal bookies and funnel it to our state&#8217;s casinos as taxable income?</p><p>It would seem foolish not to.</p><p>Can a Legislature that is constantly struggling (and mostly failing) to balance a budget turn down such a lucrative revenue stream? Should we allow illegal bookies to continue to reap untaxed profits by the bucket load? Can&#8217;t some of this money help finance our struggling school districts, help fix our roads or lessen our dependence on income, sales and real estate taxes?</p><p>Even if you don&#8217;t believe a gold rush of money will come flowing into the state&#8217;s coffers from legalized sports betting, shouldn&#8217;t we at least try to keep our casinos competitive with those of neighboring states?</p><p>Mohegan Sun Pocono has quietly become one of the biggest employers in our area. Don&#8217;t think for a moment that legalized sports betting in neighboring states won&#8217;t have an impact on our state&#8217;s casinos.</p><p>We believe all this points to lowering the licensing fee and reducing the tax to a reasonable level.</p><p>New Jersey will take about an 8 percent to 10 percent cut of the money wagered in its casinos. That may or may not be a good starting point for Pennsylvania&#8217;s legislators to consider.</p><p>Perhaps Pennsylvania could take a bigger cut. But whatever the case, we believe the Legislature needs to act now to get its fair share while still encouraging casinos to participate in this new opportunity.</p><p style="text-align: right;"><em> &#8212; Times Leader</em></p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_120443325-3356adaaecbc49239b5a434d5cfc42d6.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">A board displays odds behind Aracely Geraci in the sports book at the South Point hotel-casino on May 14 in Las Vegas. The U.S. Supreme Court recently gave its go-ahead for states to allow gambling on sports across the nation, striking down a federal law that barred betting on football, basketball, baseball and other sports in most states. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_120443325-3356adaaecbc49239b5a434d5cfc42d6.jpg</photo0><caption0>A board displays odds behind Aracely Geraci in the sports book at the South Point hotel-casino on May 14 in Las Vegas. The U.S. Supreme Court recently gave its go-ahead for states to allow gambling on sports across the nation, striking down a federal law that barred betting on football, basketball, baseball and other sports in most states. </caption0><photoCredit0>AP Photo | John Locher </photoCredit0></div></div>

Our view: Sports betting would be a winner for Pennsylvania