Earlier today the House of Representatives passed HB1098, which would enable restaurant licensees to conduct pull-tab games, daily drawings and tavern raffles.

Licensees covered under this expansion include for-profit hotels, restaurants, privately owned public golf courses, brew pubs and micro breweries licensed to sell liquor under the Liquor Code. This expansion would also extend to gentlemen's clubs holding a restaurant liquor license like Savannah's in Harrisburg.

The application fee for a tavern-game license will be $1,000 and is payable to the Liquor Control Board. In addition there is an investigation fee of $1,000 payable to the Bureau of Investigations and Enforcement within the Gaming Control Board to be used to pay for background investigations.

After applicants are approved, they will be required to pay a fee of $2,000 dollars and an annual renewal of $1,000 dollars.

Individual prize limits are set at $2,000 dollars per chance and $35,000 dollars per seven-day period.

It is anticipated that 2,000 restaurant licensees will take advantage of this expansion, and that it will generate approximately $156 million dollars annually. For more information see the House Republican Fiscal Note for HB1098 PN2639

The following items contain full descriptions of the provisions of the bill that passed the house yesterday evening.

House Democratic bill analysis of HB1098 PN2639

House Republican bill analysis of HB1098 PN2639

The following archive video contains footage of HB1098 as it was passed from the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, October 22, 2013. Senator Tim Solobay questions the distribution of revenue from this new revenue stream, and Democratic Leader Jay Costa discusses the possibility of moving these revenues to the Commonwealth's Lottery Program.

After a brief discussion the bill was called up for a vote.

The bill was passed out of the Senate on October 23, 2013 by a 39 - 11 vote, it was referred to the House Rules Committee and amended on November 13, 2013. Here's footage of yesterday's House Rules Committee meeting where Majority Leader Mike Turzai asks for a description of the bill and the amendment that was offered in committee.

After HB1098 was reported as amended it passed the full house by a vote of 102 - 96.

The following map contains the the number of active licensees included in HB1098 that would be allowed to conduct Tavern Games. Active Club Licenses are displayed in Yellow, eligible applicants are displayed in Red.

There are presently 2,998 active Club licenses throughout the Commonwealth. Using the projections contained in the House Republican Fiscal Note, Pennsylvania can expect to see an increase of 66.7% over what is currently allowed under the law.

Select a county and click search to view the number of actively licensed establishments.