The Keystone State is inching closer to launching an online casino industry, as regulators last week issued three certificates to brick-and-mortar casinos planning to bring their games to the web.
Is There a Launch Date for PokerStars Pennsylvania? The issue of online poker regulation is still being debated by PA state lawmakers, making the speculation of when any sites will go online impossible. Furthermore, it is unclear presently whether PokerStars will be permitted to operate in PA. A PokerStars launch in Pennsylvania would follow its early 2016 launch in neighboring New Jersey. “The Board has yet to establish a date in which interactive gaming will commence,” said an.
One of the properties was the Mount Airy Resort Casino, located about 100 miles north of Philadelphia. On Aug. 10, Mount Airy announced that it partnered with the Toronto-based Stars Group, owner of PokerStars, for what the state calls “interactive gaming.”
In a PowerPoint presentation from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s Aug. 15 meeting, PokerStars gave regulators a brief outline of its company history and some of its milestones in the roughly 20-year-old online poker industry. The company shared information on how many hands it has dealt (more than 172 billion), how much of the global market it controls (more than 70 percent) and some of the latest data on game integrity, among other things.
PokerStars told regulators that it identifies 89.9 percent of collusion cases from its “proactive alerts.” It also said it detects 88.96 percent of “all bots” thanks to its proprietary systems. Poker players themselves also help the online room catch the cheats and non-human players, in addition to the 65 employees PokerStars says it has on staff to monitor game integrity.
The site dealt with a bot scandal back in 2015 when it was reported that a Eastern European ring of artificial players won an estimated $1.5 million at the low-stakes PLO tables. PokerStars banned the accounts and issued refunds to impacted customers. The following year, PokerStars was requesting that some suspicious accounts send video verification of their human identity. PokerStars announced in late 2015 that it was cracking down on third-party software.
Keeping play fair is of utmost concern not only to regulated platforms like PokerStars, but also to state officials in Pennsylvania. In early 2017, a poker playing bot designed by computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh thoroughly beat a group of elite poker pros over a 120,000-hand match. Later that year, one of the men behind the bot said that it was able to achieve “superhuman performance” in heads-up no-limit hold’em. Libratus, the name of the CMU bot, could also eventually achieve a similar dominance in six-handed games.
PokerStars said in a financial report released earlier this month that it had 1.86 million “real-money active uniques” in the second quarter of 2018, so enforcing the rules and making sure poker games are fair is a major job for the world’s largest poker site.
In the presentation to Pennsylvania, the firm boasted that its platform has supported as many as 500,000 “simultaneous players”, which is “greater than Lincoln Financial Field and Heinz Field both filled three times over with poker players.”
A PokerStars launch in Pennsylvania would follow its early 2016 launch in neighboring New Jersey. Pennsylvania regulators haven’t said when games will go live. “The Board has yet to establish a date in which interactive gaming will commence,” said an Aug. 15 press release.
Mount Airy is home to a nine-table poker room. Resorts Casino Hotel, PokerStars’ brick-and-mortar partner in the Garden State, doesn’t have live poker. If PokerStars is approved for Pennslyvania, it would be the 20th jurisdiction globally where it has received approval.
Harrah’s Casino Philadelphia and Parx Casino were the other two casinos to receive interactive gaming approval. Harrah’s, owned by Caesars, will bring the WSOP-branded site to Pennsylvania. That site is powered by 888Poker. Parx partnered with GAN plc for online gaming.
It looks like any further delays to the introduction of online gambling in Pennsylvania have been averted. This observation comes on the heels of a very exciting announcement from Caesars Interactive Entertainment (CIE). Just last week, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) issued the state’s very first three online gaming licenses in favor of Harrah’s Casino Philadelphia (CIE Affiliate), Parx Casino, operated by Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment, Inc., and Mount Airy Resort Casinos, operated by Mount Airy #1, LLC.
In a press release, Harrah’s Philadelphia Senior Vice President and General Manager Chris Albrecht stated, “We thank the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and look forward to continuing to work together on the next steps in bringing online gaming to Harrah’s Philadelphia, We see this as a great opportunity to bring new customers into our Total Rewards network and for all customers to play with us both online and at the property.”
Melanie Gross, CIE’s vice president of online casino added, “We’re very bullish on the offering online gaming provides our guests and are excited for the opportunity Pennsylvania presents. We have a wealth of knowledge and experience from our six years in the online gaming space in the US and believe we’ll be able to hit the ground running in Pennsylvania when online gaming commences in the state.”
Under the terms of the licensing agreements, each operator will be allowed to offer poker, table games and online slots. The next step in the process will be implementing software platforms. All eyes will be focused on the selection process because of it might affect future software package negotiations with other online casinos in other states.
Pa Online Poker Launch Date
While nothing has yet be set into concrete, here’s how things seem to be heading. It’s highly likely Harrah’s will sign with 888’s WSOP.com website for its poker product and perhaps NYX for its online casino. It’s noteworthy Caesar’s already has a strong relationship with these providers. Early indications have Parx Casino leaning towards GAN. As for Mount Airy, things could swing one of two ways. The early favorite would have been 888 based on the strong relationship these two entities already share. However, reports are coming in that PokerStars.com has completed a deal to provide the software platform for Mount Airy’s poker, casino and sports betting products.
In all, nine casinos submitted applications for online gaming licenses in Pennsylvania. The other casinos, all of which are still under consideration, include Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, Hollywood Casino at Penn National Racecourse, Valley Fore Casino resort, Live! Hotel and Casino, Rivers Casino and Sugarhouse Casino. Based on licensing requirements, each casino was required to pay an application fee of $10 million for all three licenses (poker, casino, table games) combined. Future applications will require a payment of $12 million.
Each casino will be required to pay the state a 54% tax on slot revenues, which is inline with the tax rate for land-based casinos. The applicable tax rate for slots and table games will be 14%.
When Will Online Poker Start In Pa
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