Gaming Board Cashing Out

It is common knowledge that the Gaming Control Board, and its employees, receive generous paychecks, fatter than they deserve relative to the prevailing market for comparable work and skills.

In fact, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board members are paid more than any other state’s gaming board, including Nevada’s.  The board and its employees are paid more than any other Pennsylvania state agency. The Auditor General found that the Gaming Control Board had the highest number of employees earning more than $100,000 a year among state agencies.

Defenders of board salaries claim that high pay is necessary to ensure that employees experienced in the gaming industry were recruited. However, a Pittsburgh News Channel, found that one-third of the employees were transfers from other state agencies. Many of these transfers were paid much more than they had been in their previous position.

Has gambling in Pennsylvania really delivered for taxpayers, as Gov. Rendell claims, or merely delivered for those with the right political connections?