Pennsylvania iGaming Launch Delayed to July

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We now officially know what we’ve suspected for a few weeks now. Online gambling in Pennsylvania is NOT coming during the Spring of 2019. Rather, state regulators estimate that we will not see online gambling, including online poker in Pennsylvania, until at least July.

What is causing the delay? The Wire Act opinion of course. As expected, regulators are working with online casino operators to ensure that they are in compliance. While the Wire Act opinion will be challenged in the courts, regulators are making sure they are ready for any outcome.

Don’t Expect Online Gambling Until at Least July

On Wednesday, the PA House Appropriations Committee held a budget hearing and during that meeting, PA Gaming Control Board executive director Kevin O’Toole spoke about the online gambling launch in PA.

Originally, it was expected that online gambling would launch at some point during Spring of 2019, but with recent Wire Act developments, this seemed unlikely. O’Toole confirmed on Wednesday that online gambling will not launch during the Spring and that it will launch sometime in July. It’s also likely that online sports betting will launch around the same time as online poker and online casino gambling.

The reason for the delay? The DOJ. We all know about the revised opinion regarding the Federal Wire Act and Pennsylvania regulators have been the most aggressive in making sure that operators fall into compliance. O’Toole sent a letter to all operators and told them that they must be in compliance with the new opinion.

This means that all processes and gambling must remain intrastate. Originally, PA iGaming guidelines allowed for some servers that supported online gambling to be located outside the state. O’Toole called this provision null and void and now requires all processes to remain in-state.

Pennsylvania to Be Template for Other States Should Wire Act Opinion Stand

One thing we can take from all this is that the PGCB is setting up what may be the template for regulated online gambling in the United States under the revised Wire Act opinion. There is nothing in the opinion that prevents intrastate online gambling and Pennsylvania is taking a cautious approach to the matter.

The DOJ opinion is already facing legal challenges in court and it’s expected that other states, maybe even Pennsylvania, will be joining those challenging the opinion soon. However, there’s not an absolute guarantee that the opinion will be struck down. If this happens, then states must move forward with intrastate only online gambling.

According to reports, the compliance window for meeting the new DOJ opinion is about to be extended to June 15. This will give Pennsylvania and other states ample time to come into compliance. Pennsylvania is looking to make their operations complaint from the start.

The best outcome would be for the Wire Act opinion to be struck down as states could continue as they have since 2013. Under the opinion, the shared liquidity network between New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware would be eliminated. A lack of a shared network would make online poker unprofitable for most smaller states, meaning that we could see some states ignore the matter altogether.

For now, we have to wait and see what the next three months hold. We know additional legal challenges are coming and all we can do is sit back and wait. Until those challenges produce results, don’t expect any legitimate movement forward from other states regarding online gambling and online sports betting legislation. Pennsylvania will be the only state to move forward in any aspect, at least until after the summer, at which point we will know whether it is “game on” for online gambling in the United States or “game over.”