Is online gambling legal in PA?

• California Online Gambling Laws
• Online Casino Gambling Legal South Africa
• Online Gambling Casino Laws

Gambling Laws, Regulation, and Licensing Authorities. International internet gambling law is a subject of immense complexity, because every nation has its own take on the subject. Some parts of the world embrace online gambling while others do everything they can to ban it entirely. The legality of online gambling is ever-changing. But one thing is constant: it makes a lot of money. In 1997, online gambling revenues were about $200 million a year. Today, the online gambling industry makes an estimated one billion dollars annually. Is Online Gambling Legal? There are various online gambling laws across the world. Some countries have legalized all forms of internet-based gambling, whereas others only permit certain types of online gaming sites. There are some countries that have taken a hard stance against gambling online altogether.

On Oct. 26, 2017. Gov. Tom Wolf signed H 271 into law, enacting widespread gambling expansion that extends beyond just PA online casinos.

Here is a look at exactly what the law authorizes:

• Online poker
• Online casino games (table games and slots)
• Sports betting, both retail and online
• Online lottery
• Daily fantasy sports
• Tablet gaming in certain areas at authorized airports
• Video gambling terminals (VGTs) at qualified truck stops
• Mini-casinos

The law allowed the state to regulate and legalize these activities, but the law does not mean that every online casino site or sports betting app is suddenly legal in Pennsylvania. Only sites vetted, approved, and overseen by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) are legal.

All of the legal real-money gambling sites are very clearly tied to a land-based casino in the state. For example, FanDuel Sportsbook works in tandem with Valley Forge and BetRivers is the brand of the two Rivers Casinos in the state.

Online casinos in Pennsylvania

Legal online casinos in Pennsylvania launched in July 2019. After starting with three sites, the industry is starting to grow at a slightly faster clip. The state awarded 10 casinos interactive gaming licenses. Additionally, the PGCB is currently considering allowing MGM Resorts and Golden Nugget NJ to operate in PA.

This is the latest info on all of these online casino projects:

PA sports bettings sites

Football season is underway, which means sportsbook operators are pushing to launch during sports bettings most lucrative season. Every casino in Pennsylvania, save for Lady Luck Nemacolin, has applied for a $10 million sports betting license.

Here is a look at where each operator is in the process:

Real-money gambling apps in PA

There are currently eight online sportsbooks, five online casinos, and one online poker option in Pennsylvania. Here is a look at when each of them launched:

• 05/28/2019
• 06/24/2019
• 06/25/2019
• 07/15/2019
• 07/15/2019
• 07/17/2019
• 07/25/2019
• 09/04/2019
• 11/04/2019
• 11/04/2019
• 11/12/2019
• 12/20/2019

• 5/28/2019: PlaySugarHouse.com Sportsbook

  On Tuesday, May 28, PlaySugarHouse Pennsylvaniabegan testing on the first-ever PA online sportsbook. At launch, the site kicked off with several of the same elements present on its New Jersey site, including Jackpot Parlays, in-game betting, cash-out betting, and the same deposit bonus offer. The only thing missing? Access for iPhone users.

• 6/24/2019: Parx Online Sportsbook

  SugarHouse had the market to itself for nearly a month, but Parx eventually doubled the number of online sportsbooks on June 24 when it began testing. The final product bore a strong resemblance to the Bet Builder function introduced at retail launch, making for a seamless transition for players going from brick and mortar to online. That is unless they had an iPhone.

• 6/25/2019: BetRivers Online Sportsbook

  Just one day after Parx launched its online sportsbook, Rivers Casino Pittsburgh followed suit with testing on BetRivers. The two ended up receiving final approval at the same time, as BetRivers only needed two days of testing given its sister casino’s successful PlaySugarHouse launch.

• 7/15/2019: HollywoodCasino.com

  After being the first casino to launch a retail sportsbook, Hollywood Casino got to notch a second “first” in its belt. On July 15, the Penn National and IGT product HollywoodCasino.comofficially began testing, bringing slots and table games to desktop and Android users.

• 7/15/2019: Parx Online Casino

  Just hours after HollywoodCasino.com started taking customers, Parx Online Casino followed suit. The GAN-powered online casino product was the first site and, up to now, the only site with a blackjack game for players. Additionally, the site offered slots, roulette, and video poker.

• 7/17/2019: PlaySugarHouse Casino…and an Apple Solution

  You would think being third to launch would be a big disadvantage. However, PlaySugarHouse online casino perhaps made the biggest splash of the three casinos because it brought both a new casino site and an answer for iPhone owners. In tandem with GeoComply’sGeoGuard app, SugarHouse offered iPhone users a chance to both bet on sports and play online casino games via their phone’s browser.

• 7/22/2019: FanDuel Sportsbook PA

  The fourth PA online sportsbook totally changed the paradigm for what to expect from a PA betting app. When FanDuel Sportsbook PAlaunched, it brought with it the first integrated wallet with New Jersey, meaning you could seamlessly travel between the two states with the same app, same account, and same sports betting bankroll. Moreover? They brought with launch the first iPhone app option for PA bettors.

• 9/4/2019: FOX Bet PA

  The launch of FOX Bet Sportsbook in PA brought with it the artillery that comes with a major media company. In addition to Android and iPhone apps and sign-up deals, the site also brought a massive marketing campaign with promos centering on FOX Sport’s biggest personalities like Colin Cowherd and Cris Carter.

• 11/4/2019: PokerStars PA

  Online poker players impatiently awaited the arrival of the state’s first online poker site for months. When it launched, it was only a day or two before the PokerStars PA site surpassed the traffic of the PokerStars NJ site. But it wasn’t just poker, it came with the PokerStars Casino product and integrated in FOX Bet as well.

• 11/4/2019: DraftKings Sportsbook

  It looked like DraftKings might not find a way into Pennsylvania, but once it partnered with The Meadows Casino, it was only a couple of months before its app debuted in PA as the state’s sixth online sportsbook.

• 11/12/2019: Unibet Sportsbook and Casino

  Unibet debuted with a double feature of both an online sportsbook and an online casino. The site partnered with Mohegan Sun Pocono to offer online gambling. iIt launched with an Android app and iPhone access via the GeoGuard app.

• 12/16/2019: BetAmerica Sportsbook

  BetAmerica and Presque Isle Downs caught people by surprise with the sneakily quiet launch of BetAmerica Sportsbook shortly before the end of the year. It launched, but did so without an app and only GeoGuard browser access.

There are still more apps to come in 2020. Several major players in the state, like Harrah’s Philadelphia, still have not gone online.

What online casino options are in PA?

Pennsylvania online casinos rolled out on July 15, 2019.

Initially, the thought was that everyone would launch on or around this day, only two, Parx Casino and Hollywood Casino, were ready. SugarHouse Casino rolled out PlaySugarHouse.com two days later.

Months later, PokerStars Casino debuted alongside PokerStars PA online poker site. Unibet Casino followed a couple of weeks later.

Each of these online casinos offer relatively small libraries of games. Things that are commonplace in New Jersey, like live dealer games, are still a ways off in Pennsylvania.

Why such slow goings in Pennsylvania?

The short answer is the Wire Act. Ever since the Department of Justice released a new, much stricter, interpretation of the Wire Act in January 2019, Pennsylvania regulators have taken an extremely conservative approach to online gambling. Part of that approach includes having every operator and every casino game provider stand up separate servers in Pennsylvania. Both operators and game providers planned on sharing New Jersey servers with their PA products. The change in regulations threw a wrench in their plans…and their timeline.

Where this change is hurting PA online casino customers is not just that casino sites are launching very quickly. The other big issue is, that with few operators successfully jumping through the hoops required to offer games in Pennsylvania, there are just not a lot of game options for players. Ideally, the number of providers will grow in 2020, but history suggests we should expect continued slow rollouts on the online casino front.

What PA sports betting sites are live and legal?

Online sportsbooks, on the other hand, are operating at a faster clip. Currently, there are eight betting apps to choose from.

After initial slim pickings for iPhone users seeking to sports bet in Pennsylvania, they now have a glut of options to choose from. Parx is currently the only sportsbook without an iPhone option.

Unibet, BetRivers, and PlaySugarHouse do not have an iOS app for sportsbook users, but all three offer browser-based betting in -tandem with the GeoGuard app, a geolocation app from GeoComply that allows for browser gaming.

The launch of FanDuel Sportsbook was when the market for Pennsylvania sports betting really started to open up. The sportsbook combined the PA and New Jersey app into a single venture for both Android and iOS, with the site geolocating you to determine what you can bet on. DraftKings Sportsbook similarly offers a single app that works in all states where DraftKings accepts regulated sports bets.

California Online Gambling Laws

FOX Bet also launched with both iOS and Android options when it went live in September 2019, but it segregates apps based on states and offers a separate PA and NJ version for users.

The big perk of this for users is the shared wallet across states. If you go back and forth between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, no more worrying about whether or not the right account is properly funded.

Online poker in PA

The vertical of online gambling that is the slowest-going of all is Pennsylvania online poker. The first PA poker site, PokerStars PA, did not even go live until November 2019, over two years after the law legalizing and regulating it passed.

The state expects other online poker sites to launch. Given the slow start though, it may be a while before new sites launch. In theory, these seven casinos are all supposed to offer online poker, but Mount Airy, through PokerStars is the only one to launch so far:

• SugarHouse
• Harrah’s
• Hollywood Casino
• Mount Airy
• Parx
• Valley Forge
• Wind Creek

The next most likely candidate to launch appears to be WSOP.com, which has offered a couple of hints to suggest it might be up in running in Pennsylvania in time for the 2020 WSOP, which begins in late May. The other contender to get going in the Keystone State next is partypoker, which is partnered with Valley Forge Casino. Both of these sites are operational in New Jersey. WSOP.com is also available in Nevada and Delaware.

Before you get too excited about the prospect of playing online poker with players in New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada, which share a compacting agreement, be advised that the PGCB’s conservative approach to the Wire Act means compacting may take some time.

Compacting with other states is possible in the law and PGCB regulations, but uncertainty about which interpretation of the Wire Act will prevail means it is unlikely the PGCB will greenlight shared player pools until pending court action around the DOJ and the 2019 Wire Act is complete.

With so much uncertainty around online poker, keep an eye on the latest news and developments on the subject here at PlayPennsylvania.

International internet gambling law is a subject of immense complexity, because every nation has its own
take on the subject. Some parts of the world embrace online gambling while others do everything they
can to ban it entirely. On top of that, different jurisdictions within a single nation sometimes take radically
different approaches to internet gaming.

The United States is a great example of how complex gambling law can be within a single nation. Not only
are the federal laws poorly written and difficult to interpret, but individual states have their own laws as
well. In some states, online gambling is 100% legal and available to anyone inside state lines. In others, the
authorities are still trying to seize the assets of legitimate gambling sites.

Our goal with this part of our website is to take this massive subject and break it down for our readers.
We start this page by explaining some of the basics of online gambling legislation and regulation, which are useful to understand if you’re interested in
betting or gaming online. There is then some information on the gambling laws in various regions around the world. We’ve also included links to additional
pages where you can learn more about the legal status of both offline and online gambling in specific countries.

This page is divided into the following sections, to make it easy to find the specific region you may be looking for.

Online Gambling Legislation and Regulation: The Basics

The most important thing for you to understand about online gambling legislation and regulation is how it affects you. There are two key points to consider
in this respect.

1. It is rare for it to be explicitly illegal to USE an online gambling site
2. Licensed and regulated gambling sites are BY FAR the safest

The first point here is hopefully one that will put your mind at rest if you are worried about the legalities of gambling online, and the potential for
repercussions. The fact is that you are very unlikely to breaking the law simply by betting or gaming online. The vast majority of online gambling legislation
is target squarely at the companies that operate sites, and not the individuals who use them. Of course, laws do vary from one region to the next as we’ve
explained. It’s important to know your local laws do prohibit you from gambling online, which is precisely we’ve provided the relevant much information in
this section

In relation to the second point, most sites are licensed and regulated in at least one jurisdiction. To obtain the necessary license, they will have to meet
specific criteria as laid out by the licensing authority within the relevant jurisdiction. Operators will generally advertise details of their licensing, as it helps
to reassure potential customers that are legal and regulated. It basically lends some legitimacy to their operations. That’s what you’ll often see something
like the following on gambling websites.

You should know, however, that the actual legitimacy of licensing authorities varies quite significantly. The simple fact of the matter is some agencies are
much more stringent than others. For example, the state of Nevada puts any potential online poker site through the wringer before it issues a license to
operate. So a Nevada license has genuine sign validity. Other gambling authorities basically sell licenses to anyone with enough money, so these don’t
really mean much at all.

With that in mind, we decided to put together a comprehensive guide to licensing authorities around the world. We want you to know what it really means
when a site says it has a license to do business. You can use this information to assist in the search for a safe gambling site.

You should also understand why online gambling regulation is so important. Its primary purpose is to protect YOU, the consumers. You should be able to
gamble online with the confidence that you will be treated fairly not be exposed to dishonest or crooked practices. Thankfully, the established and
reputable licensing authorities ensure that you can do exactly that. They impose a strict code of conduct on the licensees, who have to adhere to the
necessary regulations if they are to maintain their licenses. That’s why properly licensed and regulated sites are the safest options.

For a more in-depth explanation of this subject, please see our page on how online gambling is regulated

Gambling Laws in North America

There are several countries in North America that have wildly different laws relating to gambling.
The United States is obviously the biggest country in this region, and as we’ve already mentioned
the laws here are very confusing. This is partly down to the fact that there are so many states,
each with their own attitude to gambling, but there is more to it than that. There is just a distinct
lack of clarity in so much of the relevant legislation. There is also much debate about whether
US laws actually apply to gambling sites that operate outside the region.

Things are not much better in Canada either. There is legislation in place that has been passed by
central government, but each individual province has the authority to regulate gambling in their
own regions. As with the US, the use of overseas sites is very much a grey area.

We’ve provided additional pages that explain the relevant legal situations in these two countries in much
more detail, and we’ve also covered some other countries in North America too.

Gambling Laws in Europe and the UK

Europe also has many countries with different approaches to the legality of online gambling.
Some countries outright ban it, while others have formally legalized it and put proper regulatory
frameworks in place. The United Kingdom is the best example of the latter. All forms of online
betting and gaming are completely legal, and very well regulated. Any site wishing to provide its
services to UK residents must meet requirements set out by the Gambling Commission. This
organization was established in 2005, replacing the existing Gaming Board.

There are other European countries with similar setups to the UK too. France, for example, has a
strict licensing process, but does allow overseas companies to accept French customers if they
meet the necessary criteria. For some reason, though, all forms of casino games are currently
banned. They at least have clear laws though, whereas things are decidedly murky in other countries.

We’ve provide a detailed overview of European gambling laws, and also information on the laws in each of the following specific countries.

Gambling Laws in Australia/Oceania

The laws for Australian gambling companies are very strict. They’re allowed to offer some gambling
services to Australian residents, but currently only traditional sports betting and lottery-style
games are permitted. Live sports betting is not allowed, and nor are casino games. There are no
laws that prevent Australians from using overseas sites though, as these fall outside the jurisdiction
of Australia’s government.

In New Zealand, unlike so many other regions, there is clear and precise legislation relating to
online gambling. The country passed a new act in 2003 to make sure that their laws were explicit and
easy to understand. Unusually, the act very plainly stated that the use of overseas sites is entirely
legal. Such sites are, however, banned from advertising in New Zealand.

You can read more about the country specific laws in this part of the world on the following pages.

Gambling Laws in Asia

There is very little consistency in the gambling laws throughout Asia. This is perhaps
not surprising, given the size of the continent and the number of different countries
it’s home to. Compiling an overview of Asian gambling laws would be a futile
exercise, but we have provided pages covering each of the following countries
separately.

Gambling Laws in South America

Online Casino Gambling Legal South Africa

The general approach to gambling throughout South America is reasonably liberal.
There are restrictions on certain types of betting and gaming in some countries in the
region though. For example, casino games are prohibited in Brazil. Our guide to the
gambling laws in South America explains about these restrictions in more detail, and
also covers any relevant online gambling legislation.

Gambling Laws in Africa

Few countries in Africa have passed any kind of legislation relating on online gambling,
although South Africa is one notable exception. Land based gambling is another
matter though, with various forms fully legalized throughout the region. There are
casino venues, for example, in several countries. We’ve provided details on the various
gambling laws throughout Africa on the following page.

Online Gambling Casino Laws

We recommend that you have at least passing familiarity with the legal climate with regards to gambling in
your location. A working knowledge of the law in your area may help to keep you safe from any legal trouble,
and will make it easier for you to find the sites that cater for customers in your part of the world.

Please be aware, though, that nothing contained in this part of GamblingSites.org should be considered as
actual legal advice. We’ve carried out extensive research and consulted experts when compiling all of
this information, but we are not qualified to provide legal advice. If you have any concerns about the
legalities of gambling online where you live, it would be best to speak to a licensed lawyer.