Pennsylvania may be next in line to enact igambling legislation and the Parx Casino plans to be ready by launching a free-play site before regulation occurs.
The Keystone State took huge steps forward toward online poker and gambling approval this year by commissioning a study to determine the likelihood of success as well as holding a well-attended online gambling hearing. The study, ordered by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee and undertaken by Econsult Solutions, found that Pennsylvania could greatly benefit by moving ahead toward regulation.
Parx Casino believes that the recommendation will eventually be taken to heart by state lawmakers and has joined forces with GameAccount Network to launch simulated free-play online gaming. After establishing a customer base and receiving the greenlight from state officials, Parx intends to make the transition from free-play to real-money action.
The GameAccount Network already has a number of gaming connections within the U.S., both play-money and real-money. Betfair uses the company’s platform to operate its gaming site in conjunction with the license of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in New Jersey. GameAccount’s play-money partners include New York’s Empire City Casino, Oklahoma’s Osage Casinos, and the Foxwoods Casino in tandem with the Mashantucket Pequot tribe in Connecticut.
Parx is owned by Greenwood Racing, who provides its customers with exciting thoroughbred and casino action in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. That action is now scheduled to include Internet wagering by the end of 2014, albeit under a free-play format until Pennsylvania joins Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey among states with igaming regulation.
While most industry insiders are betting that Pennsylvania’s approval of online gambling statutes will eventually take place, still to be swatted away are the efforts of Sheldon Adelson and his Coalition to Stop Internet Gambling. Adelson operates the Bethlehem Sands Casino in the Keystone State and will continue in his attempts to sway lawmakers to see things his way.
Adelson’s influence is believed to be much stronger among federal lawmakers and he likely stands a better chance of success in that legislative arena. To that end, the billionaire casino mogul has been pushing a proposal that would restore the Wire Act and overturn a 2011 DoJ ruling that allowed states to take online gambling matters into their own hands.
