That’s our main concern,” said Alex Baloga, CEO of the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association. “We want to make sure that our members are not excluded from the ability to participate in the program with terminals. The Pennsylvania trade organization that represents convenience stores wants its members to have the opportunity to operate the terminals. Beyond traditional truck stops that have showers, big convenience stores that sell large amounts of diesel and food and have adequate commercial parking - but no showers - may also qualify. That omission expanded the scope of where gambling can take place and what type of facility can have the lucrative terminals.

Left out was a key component of what most truck stops have: shower facilities.“Showers were not discussed,” Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association President Kevin Stewart told TT. It also must have at least 20 parking spots for commercial vehicles and have a convenience store on site.Ī LOOK BACK: Pennsylvania legalizes gambling at truck stops On the fly, they wrote a definition of a truck stop to qualify, a facility must have sold 50,000 gallons of diesel or biodiesel each month for 12 consecutive months, or be projected to do so. At the eleventh hour, lawmakers removed taverns from the bill and added truck stops.

People involved in the debate two years ago told Transport Topics that incorporating truck stops was a compromise, as most of the discussion had centered on gambling at taverns.

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