Pennsylvania town rejects video gambling machines
The Upper Leacock Township rejected a proposal to install the machines at a town’s convenience store.
US.- A proposal to install video gambling machines in a convenience store in Upper Leacock, Pennsylvania, has been rejected by the Township. Despite their legality under recently enacted state law, the government thinks it goes against the township’s zoning rules and is inappropriate.
“(Gaming terminals) are not a use customarily incidental and subordinate to a convenience store,” township zoning officer Mark Deimler wrote in a letter to a Rutter’s (the store company) lawyer. However, the company decided to appeal the decision to the township’s zoning hearing board.
This is the second time video gambling machines have been rejected in the area, as the Strasburg Borough Council gave a similar reason when it ruled against them at a Rutter’s on Historic Drive.
The machines are only legal at qualifying “truck stop establishments’’ in the state after Governor Tom Wolf signed Act 42, allowing the gambling expansion. However, there are no truck stops authorised so far to host them, and the expansion remains on hold.
“Nowhere is truck stop mentioned,” assistant zoning officer Ben McCue said about a Rutter’s zoning proposal, as the store is registered as a convenience store and automobile station.
