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SugarHouse and Hollywood Casinos Approved for PA iGaming Licenses

Pennsylvania included closer to live regulated online gambling on Wednesday as the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board approved two more casinos to offer online gambling services in the state. The PGCB awarded two permits on Wednesday to SugarHouse Casino and Hollywood Casinos.

Also, we learned more about what the PGCB plans to do with the remaining licenses that have not been claimed by casinos. It appears that they will permit outside operators to apply to licenses by the most scientific of methods possible.

SugarHouse and Hollywood Casinos Approved to Offer Full Suite of Gaming

On Wednesday, the PGCB met to determine whether Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association, owners of Hollywood Casino, and Rush Street Gaming, owners of SugarHouse Casino, should be allowed interactive gaming licenses.

The first approved was Rush Street Gaming. They presently operate in New Jersey, operating the online gaming for Golden Nugget. The PGCB approved the license for SugarHouse Casino and they will now offer online poker, online casino games, and online slots.

Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association was also approved for a license during the hearing. They will also offer online poker, online slots, and online casino games.

With the approvals of Hollywood Casino and SugarHouse Casino, there are five casinos now approved for licenses. Parx, Mount Airy, and Harrah’s Philadelphia were all approved last month for licenses. There are six more casinos that still need to be approved for licenses. Two casinos, Lady Luck Casino and Meadows Racetrack and Casino, did not apply.

Seven Licenses to Be Awarded to Third Party Providers

At present, there are 32 potential licenses reserved for 11 casinos that applied for licenses in the state. Ten of the 11 casinos that applied chose to apply for all three licenses while Presque Isle Downs chose to forego online poker and only applied for online slots and table games.

That leaves seven licenses up for grabs, but no casinos left to apply for them. The PGCB announced Wednesday that they will open up the licensing process to third-party providers. The licensing procedures were updated to allow for third-party providers to apply and they will be able to submit petitions to the PCGB from October 15 through 30.

After the applications are completed, the PCGB will use a scientific algorithm to determine who gets the licenses. They will hold a random public drawing to determine who can apply. Any third party providers selected will then have 60 days to submit an application for interactive gaming.

At stake are three online poker licenses, two online slot licenses, and two table game licenses. It will be interesting to see which provider, if any, decide to apply for online poker licenses considering the market. It is unlikely that the state will be able to support more than three or four online poker sites at most. Considering that PokerStars, 888, WSOP.com, and partypoker are all likely to operate in the state, will there be enough liquidity left over to make another site profitable?

Still No Official Launch Date

While we didn’t expect online poker regulation to be a fast process in Pennsylvania, we did expect to have at least some type of launch date by this point. Presently, the best estimate that we have heard is sometime in the Spring of 2019, and that was by PokerStars.

Based on Wednesday’s announcement, the licensing process will not be completed before the first of next year, which makes it unlikely that a Spring launch is happening unless regulators decide to accelerate the timeline.

At this point, our best guess is that online gambling will launch sometime in the summer of 2019, which would be a perfect time for online poker, especially WSOP.com as they can benefit from the positive press surrounding the World Series of Poker. Of course, we are still a ways away from a four-state interstate network, so once games do launch, PA players will have to settle for just intrastate poker.

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