Philly casino buffer vote is in

The vote for the Philly Casino buffer zone is in, and it's a landslide - denizens of Philadelphia overwhelmingly voted in support of a 1,500' buffer zone from schools, churches and homes.

The final count:
13,319 "successful" votes were cast (meaning, they were identified as belonging to a registered voter in Philadelphia).

And of those, 12,592 voted for a 1,500-foot buffer between slots parlors and homes and neighborhoods. 727 opposed the buffer.

Most of the votes - 9,446 - were at the bright-red ballot boxes in the city.

The vote is not binding - the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court saw to that.

A bit of background on the casino issue, from Philly's Ballot Box Website:

In the final hours of the 2004 PA Legislative session, the Gaming Act was passed. Unlike most states that implement slots gambling, Pennsylvania did not give residents a chance to vote on whether they supported the expansion of gambling in our state.

The Gaming Act, also known as Act 71, included the possibility of two slots parlors in Philadelphia, but did not include any standards for how these mega-projects, which include 24/7 liquor licenses, free drinks, 5,000-car parking garages and 6 million visitors a year, could be developed. The PA Supreme Court upheld the right of Philadelphia to determine the siting and zoning controls of the proposed casinos in their 2005 decision.

Early this year, Casino-Free Philadelphia volunteers collected over 27,000 signatures, which encouraged the Philadelphia City Council to place the buffer-zone question on the May 15th ballot. The Council voted unanimously to place it on the ballot, including unanimously overriding Mayor John Street's veto. The City of Philadelphia began preparing for the election and printed up ballots that include Question # 1, giving Philadelphians the opportunity to set minimal standards for how slots gambling will be implemented in Philadelphia. This represents the only vote that any Pennsylvanian will get on the expansion of gambling in our state.

Then on Friday, April 13th, the PA Supreme Court placed a temporary injunction on Question #1 without any published rationale, causing confusion among voters and citizen groups.

Casino-Free Philadelphia created Philly's Ballot Box to organize a citizen-run election in the event that the Supreme Court permanently removes Question #1 from the City ballot.

Now, the question is, where does the city go from here? That won't likely be determined until the city gets a new mayor, which will either be Democrat Michael Nutter or Republican Al Taubenberger. At any rate, the casino issue will be a sticky one for the next mayor of Philadelphia.

For more information and for continuous updates on casinos in Philadelphia, go to Casino-Free Philadelphia.