Parx Casino in Pennsylvania was one of the many land based casino operators that was against legalizing online gambling in the state. The common perception with land based operators was that the online gambling industry would eat into their profits and hence they opposed online gambling.
However, Pennsylvania moved forward and passed an expanded gambling bill that approved the development of 10 mini-casinos, the legalization of online gambling and sports betting as well.
Parx Casino decided to change its stance on the online gambling industry after the Keystone state became the fourth state in the country to legalize online gambling. Parx Casino applied for an online casino license that included offering online poker games and even shelled out an additional $10 million in licensing fees to offer sports betting.
The casino operator also announced plans of setting up another mini casino, taking full advantage of the new opportunities provided by the expanded gambling law. The news does not come as a surprise as a number of land based casino operators have found that the online casino industry in many ways boosts their land based revenues.
What is interesting to note is that Parx Casino is not only looking at launching iGaming operations in Pennsylvania but is also seriously considering launching online gambling in New Jersey.
In a statement, Matt Cullen, Senior VP for Sports and Interactive at Parx said
We intend to go into New Jersey. I don’t want to get too terribly bullish on it, but we feel like, because a third of our database is patrons coming from New Jersey, that helps us a lot. We still think we can be late to market and be competitive there. And as far as Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, we expect to be the market leader in that space, just like we are on the land-based side of things.
New Jersey Could Be A Tough Proposition
Parx Casino launching online gambling operations in Pennsylvania is a fair deal because the online gambling industry is still not yet up and running and gives Parx time to prepare its software platform, work out technical difficulties and then ramp up its marketing efforts.
The New Jersey market is a whole different proposition as the Garden State already has 19 iGaming websites, 8 online sportsbooks and counting plus 7 virtual poker rooms. The market is pretty saturated and it will be interesting to see how Parx performs in New Jersey should they proceed with their New Jersey launch.
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