Online Casinos In Pennsylvania Off To A Modest Start

Online Casinos In Pennsylvania Off To A Modest Start ( Click to Enlarge )

Online casino gaming made a modest start in Pennsylvania, as indicated by figures released by the state’s Gaming Control Board. The three online gambling operations took a total of $812,306 between the date the first two launched – July 15 and July 31. The state collected $326,700 in taxes for the same period.

Online Slots

The majority of the online gaming revenue was generated by online slots, which accounted for $517,712. Table games made up $294,594. The largest share of the state’s new market went to SugarHouse casino’s PlaySugarHouse.

The same operator made Pennsylvania history by launching the state’s first desktop and mobile sportsbook in May. Parx Casino ranked second, and Hollywood Casino came in third for July.

New App Store Guidelines

Pennsylvania’s gambling market is significant, but online casino games currently account for just 0.3% of it. One thing the modest start for online gaming can be attributed to is recent changes to the guidelines of the Apple App Store.

In June, the tech giant changed its guidelines to state that HTML5 game apps are not permitted to provide access to any real money gaming or charitable donations.

In essence, this stops developers from repackaging gambling websites as apps and publishing them on the App Store.

The new guidelines come into force on 3 September, and since most online casino apps are coded with HTML5, this will have substantial implications for the gambling industry.

None of Pennsylvania’s three online casinos currently offer a native gambling app, so a huge portion of the smartphone market is already cut off.

Finding Solutions

SugarHouse Casino has found its own solution to enable customers to gamble on iOS devices.

It requires players to register with PlaySugarHouse on their mobile device, from which they are redirected to download the GeoGuard Location Validator from the App Store.

This app enables the iGaming operator to confirm that players are only accessing its games from within Pennsylvania. Analysts believe more business will make the move to the online environment as a growing number of operators go live with a digital offering with iOS-native apps.

Otherwise, they will have to find an alternative solution to the Apple issue.

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