A sure bet! Pa. grants license to Harrah's for sports gambling



The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Wednesday approved an application from Harrah’s Philadelphia Casino for the $10 million license at a hearing in Harrisburg.

Sports betting is coming to Chester, though exactly when is still up in the air.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Wednesday approved an application from Harrah’s Philadelphia Casino for the $10 million license at a hearing in Harrisburg.

“We thank the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and look forward to working with them to bring a best-in-class sports betting offering to market,” said Harrah’s Philadelphia Senior Vice President and General Manager Chris Albrecht in a statement. “We know Pennsylvanians are passionate sports fans and we are working hard to be ready to launch a sports book at Harrah’s Philadelphia along with a mobile product when first given the go ahead.”


Harrah’s Philadelphia filed its application last month and touted its success with table and slot games at the Chester casino and racetrack. The casino offered additional information in a presentation to the board Wednesday.

A copy of that presentation, available online at the PGCB website, indicates Harrah’s intends to build out a 4,322-square-foot sportsbook facility inside its existing facility with an expanded food and beverage offering.

The proposed sportsbook area would be adjacent to table games and feature 40 flat-screen televisions with packages for all major sports leagues, as well as international and college sports packages.

The area would also include an odds board, six teller windows, self-betting kiosks, two horseracing terminals and stadium-style seating, according to the presentation.

Harrah’s expects to be able to draw from the experience of its parent company, Caesars Entertainment Corp., which already conducts sports betting in Nevada, Mississippi and New Jersey.

Pennsylvania casino operators have been able to apply for the licenses since the first regulations were approved at the end of May following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that opened up sports betting to all states.

Harrah’s is the fifth of Pennsylvania’s 13 casinos to apply for and receive the license. Rivers Casino Pittsburgh and SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia were also approved for sports betting Wednesday. Parx Casino in Bensalem and the Hollywood Casino in Dauphin County were approved Oct. 1.

Parx has said it hopes to launch sports betting later this month and Rivers has aims to come online by Dec. 1. Harrah’s has not given a proposed date to begin sports operations, but spokesperson Aimee Cicero indicated it should be within the next few months.

“This was just another sort of step in the process here, but we don’t have a ‘go-live’ date,” said Seth Palansky, vice president of corporate communications for Caesars Interactive Entertainment. “You have to get your software in and approved for online, that sort of thing. We don’t know if we will get it in this (football) season or not.”

“From our standpoint, there might be some additional applications for any partners they have for licensing, and then eventually we’d have to make sure the equipment is tested and works correctly, and then have some test sessions on-site just before the opening so we can sign off on it opening to the public,” said PGCB spokesman Doug Harbach.

“The whole regulatory process is a, you know, process,” said Palansky. “And it’s hard ... It may take six months from now to get through the gaming control process or it may take six weeks. We don’t control that process.”

Harbach said he believes the thing that will take longest is the build-out of the new space, which Cicero said would be located in front of The Block entertainment center and provide visitors direct access to the casino floor.

Harrah’s intends to offer on-site sports betting, as well as mobile and interactive sports wagering at its Chester location. To implement the new offerings, the casino expects to enter into agreements with Caesars Interactive Entertainment LLC as operator of the interactive sports wagering services, and Scientific Games Corporation as the provider of equipment and the sports wagering engine.

Adding sports wagering to its stable of slots and table games would create 10 new permanent jobs, according to the application. Harrah’s submitted a hiring plan with the application that it said promotes pulling from “diverse groups and Commonwealth residents” in staffing those positions.

The state has set a relatively high 34-percent tax rate for sports betting. In contrast, Nevada has a 6.75 percent tax rate, while West Virginia has set the state’s take at 10 percent. New Jersey has established a tiered tax system of 8.5 percent for in-house betting, 13 percent for online wagering run by casinos and 14.25 percent for online betting run by racetracks.

Harrah’s indicated in its application that the state and residents could realize “significant economic benefits” from granting the license, but an appendix laying out those estimations was redacted.

Cicero said Wednesday that Harrah’s has no financial projections as yet. Harbach noted there is already a thriving underground sports wagering market in Pennsylvania, but how much of that will come above ground when these sportsbooks begin to open across the state is anyone’s guess.

“I don’t think anybody’s making any great speculations on that because this is a brand new market,” he said. “I just don’t think anybody knows.”

This article is a reprint from Delcotimes.com.  To view the original story and comment, click here. 


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