On October 3, during its scheduled meeting, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board unanimously approved sports betting license petitions for Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment, the operator of Parx Casino and South Philadelphia Turf Lub and Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing (Hollywood Casino) that is operated by Penn National. This move could see sports betting go live in the Keystone State as early as November.
While Penn National did not specify an exact date or timeline for when its sports betting services would go live, it did confirm that it would open within the next few months. Green Gaming and Entertainment, on the other hand, said that they are planning to open their Parx Casino sports book in November. However, players may have to wait a tad bit longer since the operator has been advised by the Office of Enforcement Council (OEC) to hold off from launching their sports betting services until Parx Casino completes its testing period.
The Office of Enforcement Counsel’s decision to set an ultimatum that required Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment to make sure its new technology was fully functional at the main casino before having it deployed to the Turf Club came a little of a surprise to the Greenwood staff who were present during the meeting. Despite the casino operator’s legal adviser’s efforts to tell the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board that there was nothing in the law that called for such a delay. Unfortunately for them, the Office of Enforcement Counsel maintained that the requirement would be included anyway.
Parx Has High Hopes for Mobile Betting
Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment has mobile betting plans in the works but this will initially only be available in-house. Actual state-wide mobile and online betting are expected to launch sometime at the beginning of next year. According to the casino operator’s officials, in-house betting will be crucial in leveraging the popularity of in-play bets since the kiosks and retail betting windows certainly cannot provide the speed that is needed to accommodate the activity.
Sands Bethlehem Gets into the Mix
In what turned out to be another interesting twist, Sands Bethlehem submitted its application for the state’s interactive gaming licenses. This was quite surprising because the company has not been shy to show its disapproval of online gambling with Sheldon Adelson, the chairman, and chief executive officer of the, even going as far as spending large sums of money to lobby against online gaming.
As it turns, the move was not entirely going to be against the interests of Las Vegas Sand Corporation since it will be selling the casino to the Poarch Board of Creek Indians soon who want in on online gambling – the cost of the purchases will be a whopping $13 billion.