Casinos to Get a Tax Refund in Pennsylvania

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has ordered the authorities to give refund to the casinos. It was the money paid by the most successful venues to a special fund created to aid gambling venues underperforming financially.

According to Act 42, Pennsylvania casinos have to pay a percentage of its gross terminal revenue from its slot machines. The scheme would remain until all casinos exceeded annual targeted slot machine revenue caps. Those were set at US$200 million for the largest operations and US$50 million for smaller ones.

According to Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor, the funding formula would have only seven casinos eligible for allotments based on their 2017–18 financial performance. Two would receive mandatory US$4 million distributions, two would get US$2.5 million and another would receive US$500k.

The court had barred the state to distribute the money, so it remains in the fund.

“Any advantage that a high-earning casino which does not qualify for an automatic distribution might receive from the gaming industry being ‘up and running’ throughout Pennsylvania is too speculative to be considered a benefit proportional to the amount of money it must pay into the (Act 42) account,” Saylor wrote.