Online Poker May Be Headed to Pennsylvania in 2019

Online gambling has recently taken off in the Keystone State – as expected, the launch of the online gaming products is just as glamorous as expected. Even so, online poker has been missing in action leaving poker players wondering when their favorite poker games will also be available online and on mobile. Well, the wait might be finally coming to end.

Hollywood Casino, the first gambling operator in the state to launch an online casino on July 15, has recently hinted at its plans to go live with an online poker product before the end of the year. This came through a recent response to one of their customer’s queries where the casino operator’s representatives revealed that the much-anticipated online poker vertical will be unveiled and integrated “by the end of 2019”.

The Penn National Gaming-owned gambling company us one of the seven online casino license holders in Pennsylvania and it is hoping to become a leader in the space. To ensure that this comes to pass, the operator has inked some pretty lucrative partnerships. For instance, shortly after it received the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s (PGCB) approval to offer online gambling, Penn National Gaming inked a five-year deal with IGT which is one of the leading gaming suppliers of both online and land-based gaming solutions.

IGT has a very robust portfolio of online gaming products including bingo, slots, tables game, as well as online poker. Hollywood Casinos forthcoming online poker platform is expected to utilize the same IGT online platform thus extending the already existing online gaming partnership that the casino has with IGT and NetEnt.

The Competition

Hollywood Casino is not the only gambling operator that has its sights set on the Keystone State’s online poker market. Other big names in the space including PokerStars and partypoker are also reportedly planning to launch online poker in the state. PokerStars already inked a partnership deal with Mount Airy and they plan to launch their poker rooms in the near future.

Eventually, more operators are set to develop their online poker offerings. Perhaps all that is needed is a handful of poker rooms to go live and spark up the industry. For now, the state’s regulators seem to be giving more priority to online slots and online table games since these are less complicated to regulate or test and generate in tax revenue. Still, online poker is a very lucrative market and it will be impossible to hold out on it for too long.