The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board last week granted a sports-betting certificate to Stadium Casino LLC, the subsidiary of Baltimore’s Cordish Companies that just topped off preliminary construction of Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia, slated to open around a year from now.
The board also held at its regular meeting that Stadium Casino can create its online sportsbook before the physical casino is built. In the end, the board overruled its own staff, which had recommended preventing online wagers until the casino had officially launched its retail sportsbook. Cordish officials argued at the meeting that the 2017 law authorizing sports betting did not prohibit casino from launching online before its physical facility is operational. The board agreed.
The board deferred a decision on another argument made by Cordish officials, concerning sports betting at its satellite facility outside Pittsburgh. Preliminarily, the board held that the $10 million fee the operator paid for the sports betting facility does not apply to the satellite casino, stating that the company must pay an additional fee to run sports betting at Live! Casino Pittsburgh, slated to break ground this week on construction in a former anchor department store in Westmoreland Mall, 30 miles from downtown Pittsburgh.
Cordish officials argued that since Category 1 racetrack casinos currently pay no fee to extend sportsbooks to their off-track betting facilities, Category 2 stand-alone casinos like that in Philadelphia should not be double-dipped on that fee.
The board is expected to rule on that fee at it November 20 meeting.
