It’s been a long time coming. But on July 15, the fourth state in the States of America will go live with online casino gaming and poker. On that date, Pennsylvania will complete the long, traveled road to join Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey as states that offer online casino gaming activities.
Regulators Announce Opening in Hearing
During a hearing of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on Wednesday, Executive Director Kevin O’Toole said the PGCB was “ready to let all licensed operators launch their games” beginning the week of July 15. After an initially slow start with the licensing process, nearly every one of the casinos in Pennsylvania applied for and received licenses from the PGCB for at least online casino gaming. Other licenses for online poker were applied and received, but there were some casinos decided to pass on that option.
For the players, there are some hurdles to get over before they can take part in the offerings. When setting up their accounts, potential customers will have to prove their age by passing age verification checks set up by the PGCB. Additionally (as with every other operation to this point), the customer will have to be inside the borders of the Keystone State to be able to partake of the product.
While the casino gaming arm of the Pennsylvania online gaming arena is creeping closer to live action, sports betting in the Pennsylvania casinos has been cruising at full speed and online sports betting should be live within the next couple of weeks. O’Toole noted the reason that sports betting was quicker to go “live” than the rest of the activities (the Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course has been accepting sports bets on site since November of last year) was that sports wagers are placed on live events, whereas online casinos and poker have other factors that must be tested before they can be licensed.
Who is Offering What?
There isn’t only going to be a battle between the casinos for the prized Pennsylvania online gaming dollar, there’s going to be a battle between online poker sites for supremacy. All three of the biggest names in online poker – PokerStars (Mount Airy Casino), 888 (Harrah’s) and partypoker (Valley Forge Casino) – will be in action. Another provider, Rush Street Interactive, will try to break the stranglehold of the “Big Three” with their partnership with SugarHouse. Other casinos either won’t be in the mix for online poker, haven’t determined a software provider at this time or their provider is looking to make their big break in Pennsylvania.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
To say that there has been a lengthy process for Pennsylvania to enter the online gaming industry would be a huge understatement. Original regulations were passed in 2017 by the Pennsylvania legislature and signed into law by Governor Tom Wolf, but nearly a year would go by before the PGCB put the regulations in place and began accepting applications. After that lengthy process, the PGCB then had to review the applications before giving the go-ahead to any casino to accept online action.
Then a curveball was tossed into the mix.
In January, the U. S. Department of Justice reversed their previous decision regarding the Wire Act of 1961. Under a 2011 ruling, the DoJ stated that only sports betting was covered by the 1961 law, which opened online activities such as lottery ticket sales, casino gaming and poker for every state. There was some slow movement on this newfound capability as it wasn’t until 2013 that Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey jumped in with their own online casino and/or poker operations (Nevada to this day only offers online poker).
The new decision, which hasn’t been implemented yet, put a pause on Pennsylvania’s actions (and many other states). In the end, PGCB officials put slight tweaks on their new intrastate online casino operations. They also decided, at this time, that they would not compact for online poker with the other three states – Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware – in an interstate agreement (those three states already have compacted) as state officials wait to see what shakes out with the most recent DoJ ruling.
Windfalls of New Revenues for Pennsylvania?
It should be intriguing to see what Pennsylvania does with online gaming, poker and sports betting. It is by far the largest state to introduce regulations on the industry and, if other data is indicative, it could be a windfall for the state. In 2018 New Jersey, admittedly with five years of building, earned record revenues for their online casinos of over $300 million. Pennsylvania, with nearly 13 million residents (New Jersey has 9 million), should be able to show new revenues immediately from their new gambling operations.