Three casino operators approved for online gambling in Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board awarded Interactive Gaming Certificates to three casino license holders Wednesday.

The approvals were the first made by the Board for Interactive Gaming in its plan to consider all nine petition requests by casino operators at its August, September and two October 2018 public meetings. The Board has yet to establish a date in which Interactive Gaming will commence.

Gaining approval today were:

Chester Downs and Marina, LLC, operator Harrah’s Philadelphia
Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment, Inc., operator of the Parx Casino
Mount Airy #1, LLC, operator of the Mount Airy Casino Resort

All three of the approved certificate holders can conduct:

Non-Peer-to-Peer interactive games which simulates slot machines;
Non-Peer-to-Peer interactive games which simulates table games; and,
Peer-to-Peer interactive games which simulates poker.

The license fee for each of these approved certificates is $10 million and is due no later than 60 days after today’s Board approvals.

UPDATE;

At Wednesay’s PA Gaming Control Board hearing, it was revealed that Presque Isle and Mohegan Sun Pocono land casino licensees have become the tenth and eleventh applicants for Pennsylvanian online gambling licenses.

Presque Isle paid $8 million for licenses covering virtual table games and slots, but not poker, while Mohegan Sun paid $12 million for licenses spanning casino games and online poker.

The duo joins nine other PA land-based casinos, all of whom applied for an all-inclusive licence ahead of a deadline that gave casinos until mid-July to apply for table game, slot, and poker licenses for the discounted price of $10 million. Having missed the deadline, Presque Isle and Mohegan Sun were required to pay $4 million per licence.

With their entry, the only brick-and-mortar casinos in Pennsylvania not to apply for an online gambling license of some sort are Lady Luck Nemacolin and The Meadows. Pennsylvania has already locked up $110 million from online gambling, which was legalised last October, all before the first virtual bets are taken.

Churchill Downs, which has long been a proponent of online gambling, agreed to acquire Presque Isle in February this year (see previous report). Churchill also has a long-term agreement with sports betting and iGaming platform provider SBTech.

Mohegan Sun Pocono has yet to announce partnerships for Pennsylvanian online gambling, but it has an existing relationship with SG Digital, and in New Jersey it partners with Resorts-PokerStars; however, PokerStars has already paired with Mount Airy in Pennsylvania.

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