State lawmaker calls for A.G. to oversee casino background checks
A recent review by Auditor General Jack Wagner called for more coordination between the Pennsylvania agencies that review potential casino licensees.
A recent review by Auditor General Jack Wagner called for more coordination between the Pennsylvania agencies that review potential casino licensees. But the top Republican on the House Gaming Oversight Committee says Wagner’s suggestions don’t go far enough.
Caption: Chester County Rep. Curt Schroeder.
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[audio: 090601sdgaming.mp3]
Wagner wants the Gaming Control Board’s investigative branch to share more information with law enforcement operations like the Attorney General’s office during background checks of potential casino owners.
Republican Representative Curt Schroeder of Chester County says that would help, but he’d rather see the A.G. or state police completely take over licensee investigations.
Schroder says the Gaming Oversight Committee should be looking into that, and he’s frustrated it’s spent much of the year holding hearings on a bill to legalize video poker instead.
Schroder: So it’s been my critique all along that we should not be spending our time-and really wasting our time-on this video poker nonsense. We should be a true oversight committee, as our name suggests.
Committee Chairman Dante Santoni, a Berks County Democrat, says he thinks the Gaming Control Board has done a good job with investigations, but he’s open to holding hearings.
But he concedes that likely won’t happen until the fall-once video poker debates have been wrapped up.
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