Regulators Approve Pennsylvania Online Gambling Permits For Presque Isle Downs, Stadium Casino

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) handed out plenty of treats during its October 31 hearing. In addition to sports betting licenses and other topics, the agency approved PA online gambling petitions for two more casinos.

Both Presque Isle Downs and the Stadium property in Philadelphia now have interim permits in place. That brings the number of approved online gambling licensees to nine, following:

• Harrah’s Philadelphia
• Hollywood
• Mount Airy
• Parx
• Sands
• SugarHouse
• Valley Forge

Here’s everything we know about PA interactive gaming so far.

Presque Isle crystallizes interactive plans

Presque Isle executives came to the hearing armed with a short presentation covering their products and features. The Churchill Downs property also revealed several key details about its plans during its brief testimony.

Casino representatives told regulators they plan to go live with online casino and sports betting products by the end of the year in New Jersey under an existing partnership with Golden Nugget.

In neighboring Pennsylvania, Presque Isle applied for permits for online slots and online table games, eschewing online poker. It does plan to offer both traditional and live-dealer casino games.

SBTech will supply the property’s interactive platforms, and the planned use of Churchill’s BetAmerica brand may hint at a larger, national strategy.

One of the more interesting parts of the presentation was a feature called “Reality Checks.” Representatives explained it as a system of popup notifications that informs players about their current session length.

Stadium Casino ‘in a bit of a pickle’

The Stadium Casino representative showed up with neither a presentation nor details about the online plans for the yet-to-be-built casino. Instead he brought requests.

As counsel explained, the company is “in a bit of a pickle.”

Developers were forced to meet the tight application deadline in order to secure their interactive gaming permits. But without a casino — and with rumors of a possible sale swirling — ownership has held back any further details.

During the hearing, Stadium asked the PGCB to amend its petition to a two-channel license (slots and table games), instead of the three-channel license (including online poker) it initially applied for.

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How many licenses are still available?

Stadium is the second casino to rescind a permit application. Rivers Casino, one of two Rush Street Gaming properties in the state, pulled its online gambling application earlier this month.

That leaves a total of 11 individual permits up for grabs:

• 3 online slots
• 3 online table games
• 5 online poker

The remaining licenses will be awarded to “Qualified Gaming Entities” in the near future. Thus far, MGM is the only known company that applied for interactive licenses as a QGE.

Other potential candidates could include:

• PokerStars
• Kindred Group
• Bet365
• Foxwoods
• Golden Nugget