Online PA Sports Betting Expected to be Huge

Online sports betting is now live at a Pennsylvania and and analysts are predicting the state’s sports betting market could become the most lucrative in the nation.

Online sports betting is now a reality in Pennsylvania, and industry observers are saying the market could end up being the most lucrative in the U.S.

SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia held a three-day public testing period of its online sports betting systems at the end of May, after regulators gave their approval. The casino is expected to begin a 24 hours a day online operation starting in June.

Dustin Gouker, an industry analyst for the Play Pennsylvania gaming news website, predicts the Pennsylvania market will easily rival New Jersey’s online market, which handled nearly $300 million in wagers in March alone.

“It certainly could be bigger than Nevada or New Jersey is right now,” said Gouker. “If everything goes right, and everybody puts out a good app, they’re going to see billions of dollars wagered annually and revenue in the hundreds of millions. It’s going to be robust.”

“When you look at casino gaming overall, Pennsylvania is one of the largest states,” said David Forman, senior director of research for the American Gaming Association, in an interview with the Play Pennsylvania site. “In terms of gaming, Pennsylvania collects more tax revenue than any other state. The appetite for a legal sports betting market there is huge.”

Pennsylvania has been moving slowly on the online portion of its sports betting provision, passed as part of the major gaming expansion law in 2017, partly because of extra caution in light of the recent U.S. Department of Justice opinion that the 1962 Wire Act prohibits interstate exchange of sports betting wagers and information.

“Regulators are rightly focused on the integrity of the bets and making sure operators have reliable platforms to use,” Forman said. “All markets, with maybe the exception of New Jersey, have shown a learning curve. As other states learn and roll this our more broadly, we’ll see an impressive uptick in the amount bets and revenue raised.”

SugarHouse Casino, which has operated its Play SugarHouse sports betting site in New Jersey since last August, is the first to launch in Pennsylvania. Insiders say Rivers Casino, also owned by Rush Street Gaming, will be next up after that.

Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has approved a sports-betting license for Mohegan Sun Pocono in Wilkes-Barre. The casino, which was the first to open in Pennsylvania, becomes the seventh of 12 casino licensees in the state approved for sports betting. There also are sports books at two off-track betting parlors.

The next licensee to launch a sports book likely will be Presque Isle Downs Casino in Erie, which has a license and expects to open sports betting soon. Mount Airy Casino Resort announced it will submit an application soon.