The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board as finally announced that the 90-day window for online gambling license petitions is now open for the Keystone state’s casinos. According to Doug Harbach, Pennsylvania Gaming Control Boards’ director of communications, current license holders are now able to petition the board for the state’s interactive gaming certificates. Initially, the opening date for the petition period was anticipated to begin on April 16 though no official announcement was made on the day. Nevertheless, it is now official and that is all that really matters.
Thanks to a legislation that was passed in October 2017, casinos will be allowed to offer legal and regulated online gambling, a process that officially kicked off on April 16. Also, online gambling operators and platform providers are likely to start their application processes in May and June respectively. During this initial window, Pennsylvania’s 13 casinos may petition to offer online gambling and apply for full licenses which will see them part with $10 million per license.
To put this into perspective, the state’s gambling law states that:
‘No later than 90 days after the date the board begins accepting petitions under this chapter, a slot machine licensee may file a petition with the board for an interactive gaming certificate. If the board approves a petition for an interactive gaming certificate under this paragraph, the board shall authorize the interactive gaming certificate holder to offer any category of interactive gaming.’
If a casino’s petition is granted, it will be allowed to offer online gambling. Taking April 16 as the official start date, July 15 will mark the end of the 90-day window and also the start of a new 30-day window where the casinos will be able to petition for pieces of the gambling licenses if they are not interested in the full $10 million licenses. These “la carte” licenses will cost $4 million apiece.
When the 30-day period eventually comes to an end and there are some gaming certificates left, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will allow qualified gambling entities from outside the state to file petitions for the online gambling certificates.