Pennsylvania Online Gambling Market on Schedule

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The Pennsylvania online gambling market is apparently still on schedule to launch by the end of 2018. This is the latest from Kevin O’Toole, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB). He recently confirmed that the state will start accepting applications for online casino licenses in April, which is according to plan. In addition to accepting online casino applications in the near future, Pennsylvania also started accepting daily fantasy sports applications last week.

Pennsylvania online gambling market on track for launch

The upcoming Pennsylvania online gambling market is apparently on track to launch, according to the PGCB. Online casino applications will be accepted from April 2018.

Pennsylvania Online Gambling Applications Accepted from April

Back in October 2017, Pennsylvania became the fourth state to officially legalize online gambling, as part of the state’s large gambling expansion plans. However, it was unknown when we could expect the launch of the state’s online casinos. O’Toole also said that the PGCB was drawing up temporary regulations for the upcoming online casino market but didn’t reveal anything further.

We do know that the state will issue 13 online casino licenses, which is one for each of the land-based casinos in Pennsylvania. These licenses will also be divided into sub-licenses, each for a specific type of casino game. There will be one for online slots, one for table games, and one for poker. The reported cost is $3 million for each sub-license or $10 million for all three.

Skin Allowance an Unresolved Issue

The main issue that the gambling industry faces right now is how many skins will be allowed per license. When referring to skins, we are referring to different branded online casinos that all use the same online casino license. This could allow several different online casinos to all use the same license.

Parx Casino has requested that the state only allows one skin per license and the branding should be limited to the land-based casino that runs the online casino. However, 888 disagrees and thinks that allowing multiple skins per license is crucial to operating a healthy online gambling market. 888 is currently the only company that is active in all three states where online gambling is currently legal (Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware), and operates the online poker network that operates between states.

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