Sports bettors in the Commonwealth will soon have many more legal betting options thanks to the approval of three more sports wagering licenses by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia and Parx Casino in Bensalem whose bookmakers were approved on Wednesday hope to launch their sportsbooks at around the beginning of December. However, before that, they are both expected to hold two-day test runs that will be overseen by the state regulator’s staff sometime within the next few weeks.
The Wednesday meeting mainly involved the approval of gaming partners rather than the casinos themselves. For instance, the PGCB approved the transaction waiver for European gaming technology company Kambi which is set to provide Parx Casino with its top-notch betting services after inking a partnership deal with Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment, the owner of Parx Casino. Parx Casino’s application had already been approved earlier in October. Parx Casino intends to convert its 360 Lounge into a temporary sportsbook that will feature 12 self-service kiosks as well as seven betting windows. In addition to this, the casino is already hard at work renovating its South Philadelphia Turf Club off-track betting outlet so that it can be a satellite sportsbook.
Next was Rush Street Interactive (RSI) which received a tentative license to provide sports betting services (with a little help from Kambi) to SugarHouse and Rivers casinos both of which are owned by Rush Street Gaming and were given the green light for sports betting late last month.
Even though not many of these casinos have given definite timelines as to when their sportsbooks will go live, it is safe to say that residents of the Keystone State will see more operations spring up over the next few months and will be followed shortly by the launch of online sports betting services. These will allow customers to place sports bets on all the supported electronic devices, including smartphones and tablets.
Mohegan Sun Says No to Online Poker
Another important highlight of the PGCB’s Wednesday meeting was the approval of the Mohegan Sun Pocono casino’s online gambling license. However, the casino chose to leave out online poker citing that they are now only interested in offering table games and online slots.
In a way, the move is totally justifiable since it is no secret that running a successful online poker platform in the United States is certainly not an easy task. This is mostly due to the fact that the regulated online poker industry is quite ring-fenced thus making its. Another possible reason for the casino’s change of heart would be the move by PokerStars to partner with Mt. Airy – PokerStars was initially expected to partner with Mohegan Sun, something that would give the casino a huge competitive edge over the other online poker licensees in the state.
