What to Know
- Regulators on Wednesday awarded Pennsylvania's first sports betting licenses to two casinos, including Parx in Bensalem.
- Owners of Pennsylvania's 12 casinos can pay a $10 million fee to operate sports betting.
- The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for states to legalize sports betting earlier this year. Neighboring Delaware and New Jersey have it.
Pennsylvania could be only weeks away from becoming the sixth state with sports betting.
Regulators on Wednesday awarded Pennsylvania's first sports betting licenses to two casinos, although the casinos have other requirements to meet that could take a couple months.
The owners of Parx Casino plan to offer sports betting through the suburban Philadelphia casino and racetrack and at an off-track betting parlor called the South Philadelphia Turf Club. They could begin showing sports as early as November.
"People can watch pretty much any game that's on in the country," John Dixon, the chief technology officer of Parx Casino, told the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board during a hearing on the application Wednesday.
Penn National Gaming, which already operates sports betting at casinos in Mississippi and West Virginia, applied for the Hollywood Casino and racetrack it owns near Hershey.
Betting online or on mobile devices, meanwhile, could take until next year to start up. Users must be 21 and inside Pennsylvania.
Owners of Pennsylvania's 12 casinos can pay a $10 million fee to operate sports betting, while three others are seeking licenses.
The U.S. Supreme Court in May cleared the way for states to legalize sports betting. Since then, sports books have opened in Delaware, New Jersey, Mississippi and West Virginia, joining the grandfathered Nevada.
Pennsylvania's casinos already rake in more gross revenues than any other state's casinos except Nevada's, American Gaming Association figures show. Pennsylvania is the No. 1 state in tax revenue from the casino industry, at $1.4 billion in the 2016-17 fiscal year.
