Moody’s questions Pennsylvania’s expansion

The credit rating agency questioned the latest gambling expansion in the US and said that there are significant risks around it.

US.- Moody’s, the credit rating agency, reported that Pennsylvania’s recent gambling expansion could jeopardise the economic situation of the existing casinos, as it could increase the risk of making the state less attractive to the industry.

Moody’s analyst Peggy Holloway said that the 10 mini-casinos legalised by the bill that was signed by Tom Wolf could shift steal revenue from the existing facilities. “Based on some commentary from the operators, they’re not that happy with the way the bill was set up.”

A spokesman for the Governor’s administration said that the current casinos already showed concerns as they asked the new ones to be a certain distance from them. “Gaming demand has been fairly sluggish across the United States for the past few years. Pennsylvania has seen relatively flat to one to two percent revenue growth,” added Holloway.

The analyst also noted that the 50 percent tax rate that the lawmakers put on the new iGaming industry is very high. For example, New Jersey’s industry only taxes online gaming operators at 16 percent, and even some of them complained about the high rates. Holloway believes that the higher rate in the state could stop casinos from offering iGaming services, which would then impact negatively in their revenue.