Pa. expands online options for gambling
Players can partake of slots, table games
The latest newly legalized gambling opportunity in Pennsylvania reaches the public Monday, with two casinos scheduled to launch online sites that allow play of slots, blackjack and other games just like in their actual settings.
The Parx Casino, based in Bucks County, and Hollywood Casino, located in Dauphin County, will be the first to undertake multiple days of testing of their new online casino games, Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s spokesman, Doug Harbach, said. He said Philadelphia’s SugarHouse Casino, which is a sister property of the Rivers Casino, will introduce its site Wednesday and Thursday, also under gaming board supervision.
The casinos’ online gaming sites will operate during restricted hours this week while the gaming board evaluates them before issuing approval of permanent fulltime use. Just as with online sports betting sites that recently started, the board examines facets such as financial accounting and the controls designed to ensure that games are played only by those within Pennsylvania and age 21 or older, Mr. Harbach said.
Though it’s a test period for the casinos, it’s real for them and the players, who will be able to deposit funds into accounts by various methods such as debit and credit cards and bank account transactions. The players can then risk that money by using computer devices or smartphones to play casino games, although iPhones won’t yet work because Apple has set some new technical requirements for gambling- related apps.
Neither the Rivers Casino nor Meadows Racetrack & Casino, which is under the same ownership as Hollywood Casino, has opted to pay a $ 10 million fee to launch online casino games. Pittsburghers and anyone else within the state can register and play on any Pennsylvania casino’s site, however. Ten casinos within the state are expected to offer online gaming sites eventually, after paying a total of $ 94 million in licensing fees as part of a wide- ranging gambling expansion approved in 2017.
Games similar to slot machines have also been offered online since
last year through the Pennsylvania Lottery under its own expansion. A group of casinos has filed suit trying to block those iLottery games as illegal competition, but a Commonwealth Court judge on Friday denied a request for a preliminary injunction to put an immediate stop to them.
The new gambling opportunity for people to indulge in at home, at work or anywhere else they choose follows the advent of online sports betting. Mr. Harbach said the digital sports betting rollout has gone smoothly, and revenue figures tied to it for the month of June are to be released this week.
In New Jersey — the only state preceding Pennsylvania with both online casino games and sports wagering — more sports betting is done online than in person, but revenue from casino games played within the establishments far exceeds the total from online play.
It’s hard to project what the revenue figures will be in Pennsylvania, Mr. Harbach said, while adding, “I think most people believe moving these games online is certainly something that fits very well into a younger demographic, who does so much of their business and hobbies online.”
It’s up to each casino to decide what games they want to include, but in many cases they will resemble the same options available on their gaming floors. Seven casinos paid to include poker as part of their online offerings, although Mr. Harbach said the technology is more complicated to create that platform, and it will not be available immediately.
“There’s still some issues to be worked out,” he said. “It’s a totally different game, because it’s player to player — or peer to peer, as we call it — rather than the player [ competing against] the house.”
Concerns exist within the gambling addiction treatment community that the faster, more easily accessible online games create new chances for people to overindulge. As with the new sports betting sites, the casinos and gaming board will acknowledge that by featuring “responsible gambling” options on the websites, through which players may voluntarily limit the amount of time or money they spend.
The gaming board also has a self- exclusion list on which individuals may sign up to be barred from online play, similar to the exclusion list on which some 13,000 people have placed their names to be denied entrance to a Pennsylvania casino.