Penn National and Rush Street gaming awarded Pennsylvania online licenses

Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood Casino and Rush Street Gaming’s SugarHouse have become the latest names to be awarded egaming licenses in Pennsylvania.

At a meeting of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) on Wednesday the two casino operators were given licenses to operate online slots, table games and online poker, bringing the number of approved licensees to five.

Licenses are granted on an individual basis, by game type at a cost of $4m, but operators can elect to pay a $10m discounted rate to obtain licenses in all three verticals.

Parx, Harrah’s and Mount Airy casinos were all awarded licenses by the PGCB last month, following a glut of last minute applications for licenses prior to the initial deadline.

A total of 11 of Pennsylvania’s 13 casino licensees have applied to offer egaming, and apart from Presque Isle Downs, which elected to offer only online slots and table games, all have chosen to take up the three-license option.

If unclaimed by the remaining two Pennsylvanian casino operators, the remaining three licenses for poker, two licenses for slots and two licenses for table games will be offered by the PGCB to casino and online operators from outside Pennsylvania. Out of state applications for these licenses will be accepted between 15 October and 31 October 2018.

As part of the process, all applicants have their suitability vetted with several being drawn at random. These shortlisted operators will then have 45 days to submit a final application, which will be vetted fully before potentially receiving a license.