Recently, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), Kevin O’Toole, announced the official start date of legal online gambling launch in the state. According to the authority, the 10 online gambling certificate holders, and three igaming operators, have been advised that the go-live period for online gambling in Pennsylvania will begin on July 15th, 2019.
In the meantime, it is expected that mobile sports betting will come to the state much sooner than the official launch date. The first to start their testing periods are expected to be Rivers Casino and Sugarhouse Casino in just a week’s time. Many more will launch mobile sports betting through the month of May.
This is an exciting period for Pennsylvanian gambling and betting fans who have suddenly been presented with significantly more options since changes were made to the gambling landscape. In November last year, the state rolled out land-based sports betting when Hollywood Casino went live with the first retail sportsbook.
It is expected that mobile sports betting options will boost numbers in a market that is already doing very well thanks to legal sports betting. In March this year, punters wagered on sports more than $44 million in the Keystone State (population: 12 million). The addition of online sports betting will ensure that Pennsylvania will be a force to be reckoned with.
Just as a comparison, New Jersey generated $400 million in wagers in March and is a state of less than 9.5 million people.
Many of the casinos that offer land-based sportsbooks are planning to add online sports betting to their mix in the near future. These include Parx Casino (with Kambi), Hollywood Casino (with William Hill), Harrah’s Philadelphia (Scientific Games) and Valley Forge (with FanDuel).
The gambling authority said that Pennsylvania sports betting operators will be testing their apps very soon.
“We expect to begin live testing of the online sports betting app for at least one of the approved casino vendors within the next two-three weeks,” said the communications director of the PGCB, Doug Harber, 10 days ago.
