Pennsylvania to Begin Online Gambling Operations

Kevin O’Toole, executive director of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, has announced that the application for online gambling licensing in this state will begin in April, effectively confirming previous reports that, by the end of 2018, Pennsylvania will have its own online gambling market ready for launch.

Last week, this state has received its first fantasy sports license applications. Having ed the online gambling legalization bill in October last year, 13 online gambling licenses at first and each will be given to one of the operators who have land-based casinos. These licenses will be divided into sub-licenses for every form of online gambling such as slots, table games and poker.

However, the amount of skins per license is currently unknown. Skins allow multiple sites that are branded in different ways to use the same software. Parx Casino has requested that skins be limited to one per license and that branding “must reflect that of the land-based casino.” In their opinion, having unlimited skins with unlimited software providers per one land-based license would not bode well.

888 is of the different opinion – this famous operator thinks multiple skins are the only way forward and a guarantee of a healthy market. Their CEO Itai Freiberger has said: “Since multiple brands will be associated with a single licensee (as opposed to allowing the online operators with those brands to make an independent offering to players in the state), a diversified offering backed by additional marketing spend and associated with reputable brands will increase overall profit for licensees and the overall size of the internet gaming market.”