Communities across the state have up to half their chips in a game being played by Harrisburg’s elected officials.

And they’re holding their breath, waiting to see what will happen as a Memorial Day deadline looms for lawmakers to fix a now-unconstitutional local share tax on casinos.

Chester is one of those communities.

The law behind the flat $10 million local share tax that Harrah’s Philadelphia Casino and Racetrack has been paying Chester for the past decade was struck down last fall by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. And no clear solution has yet emerged to replace it, according to a NewsWorks report by Lindsay Lazarski.

Some support a four percent tax on gross slot machine revenue, while others are still proposing a flat fee.

“We’re not saying for a second that there shouldn’t be a local share tax,” said casino attorney Michael Sklar. “It just has to be done in a constitutional and responsible way.”

Harrah’s and several other casinos agreed to local payments this year while the law is in limbo. Chester got $10.5 million, and Delaware County received $4.9 million.

Read more about the state’s uncertain casino funding situation on NewsWorks here, and check out previous DELCO Today casino coverage here.