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Pennsylvania Online Poker to Launch on July 15

For over a year now, we’ve been saying that “online poker is coming to Pennsylvania soon.” Well, we can FINALLY give you a launch date for online gambling and online poker in Pennsylvania. On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board announced that online gambling in the state would launch in 90 days.

On July 15, 2019, Pennsylvania will become the fourth US state to offer online poker and the third to offer online casinos gambling to its residents. Thanks to the recent new Wire Act interpretation, you can expect PA to be intrastate only, at least until the Wire Act issue is resolved.

July 15 is the Date!

On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board met and during that meeting, Executive Director Kevin O’Toole announced the news we’ve all been waiting to hear. As reported by Eric Ramsey of Online Poker Report, O’Toole revealed that after reviewing what would be necessary for the industry to get online, 90 days would be sufficient to accomplish that end.

He also revealed that he told the ten iGaming certificate holders and three iGaming operators that a “coordinated go-live period for interactive gaming” would begin on July 15. In a letter to license holders, O’Toole revealed that the first two to three days of the go-live period would be for testing.

Some Platforms Are Already Being Tested

According to the same letter sent to licensees, some i-Gaming manufacturers have already submitted games to the Board’s gaming laboratory. NetEnt has submitted 28 games for testing while IGT and NYX have submitted 16 and three games respectively.

According to the letter, the following companies are expected to submit games to the laboratory:

IGT
IGT Global Solutions
Everi Interactive
NYX
NetEnt
GAN
Konami

Online Sports Betting May Launch Sooner

One thing mentioned in the OPR report is that online sportsbooks in PA may be coming sooner than online gambling and online poker. OPR claims that sources expect online sports betting to launch int he next few weeks rather than on the July 15th launch for other forms of online gambling.

There are presently nine brick and mortar locations currently offering live sports betting in Pennsylvania. Parx and SugarHouse Casinos are expected to launch sometime in May with Rivers, Valley Forge, Hollywood Casino, Harrah’s PA and Presque Ilse Downs expected to launch sometime in May or June. There’s no word yet on when the South Philadelphia Turf Club or Valley Forge Turf Club plans to launch online sports betting.

PA Will Comply With Current Wire Act Interpretation – For Now

When the DOJ reverse the 2011 opinion regarding the Wire Act, many worried that this would indefinitely delay the launch of online poker and other forms of online gambling in PA. However, O’Toole actively worked with PA licensees to fall into compliance with the new interpretation.

What that means is that PA online gambling will be completely intrastate for the time being. All payment processes, servers, and anything supporting online gambling sites must stay exclusively within PA’s borders.

Of course, if the DOJ opinion gets struck down, you can quickly expect interstate compacts for online poker. As I’ve predicted in the past, you could see up to three different interstate networks formed once PA can allow interstate compacts. I expect WSOP.com become part of the primary interstate network. Afterward, you may see the formation of a network between PokerStars NJ and PokerStars PA along with a network joining partypoker in NJ and PA.

The next 90 days will be an exciting time in PA as online poker sites are finalized and we begin seeing promotions for the upcoming websites. Now the question is who else will join PA this year. West Virginia has regulated online poker, and online gambling and other states are on-deck with legislation to do so. For now, we can just sit back and see the drama unfold.

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