Another online casino has been added to the Pennsylvania gambling portfolio.
Australian-based PointsBet announced Wednesday that PointsBet Pennsylvania LLC, its wholly owned subsidiary, has had a successful launch of its online casino product in the Keystone State. PointsBet does so after getting regulatory approvals by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) for a soft launch in the state.
PointsBet is currently in a two-day soft launch, in accordance with PGCB requirements. Then it will be given clearance to launch live operations of its online casino operation.
Back on Feb. 8, PointsBet debuted its mobile sports betting app in the state. This marks the fourth state in which PointsBet is offering its iGaming platform, following Michigan, New Jersey and West Virginia. The platform also launched in Ontario (Canada) on April 4.
PointsBet saw the opportunity in Pennsylvania because it is one of a handful of states with legalized Pennsylvania online casinos, along with New Jersey, Connecticut, West Virginia, Michigan and Delaware.
Those states plus Nevada also offer online poker.
“It is an exciting time for the online casino market, and we’re proud to be able to tap into this momentum and introduce our proprietary product in Pennsylvania,” said Manjit Gombra Singh, president of product and technology for PointsBet, in a news release. “We’re quickly scaling our online casino business and looking forward to expanding and refining our suite of products throughout the year to deliver more options for our users in PointsBet online casinos.”
The gaming operator first unveiled its online casino product in Michigan in May 2021.
“Just a few short months after launching PointsBet in the state, we’re excited to now be able to introduce the Pennsylvania market to our innovative online casino product,” said Aaron O’Sullivan, vice president of online casino revenue for PointsBet. “At PointsBet, we pride ourselves with our ability to not only deliver our users with the best-in-class sports betting product but the best-in-class casino content as well — creating a holistic PointsBet user experience.”
PointsBet has operations in the U.S., Australia, Canada and Ireland.
February Good for iGaming, Not for Sports Betting
Currently, there are 10 providers of online casino games within the state.
Casino games offered online generated gross revenue of $102.41 million during February 2022, compared to $77.78 million in February 2021, which was an increase of 31.66%.
February was a particularly harsh month for sports betting revenue in Pennsylvania, as the state reported a loss of $443,000, following a gain of $32.17 million a month before. Pennsylvania’s sports handle was down significantly as well. The total handle for the month was $597.064 million, which dropped by 24.8% from January ($793.7 million).
A PGCB spokesman said to expect March numbers sometime next week.
