The Pennsylvania Lottery scored a win in court last week, when a state judge ruled the lottery’s internet-based games do not infringe on operators’ rights related to their own online casinos.
Seven casino operators filed suit against the lottery after the iLottery games were revealed, noting that at least nine of the games carried the same titles and/or themes as casino slots on Pennsylvania floors, or games that were offered online in other states to that point. The operators noted that the iLottery games had an average return to player of 81.6 percent to 89.1 percent, close to the casino minimum return of 85 percent, while instant games returned payouts in the range of 61 percent to 77 percent.
Operators claimed in their suit that the iLottery games would cannibalize an online gaming market for which each paid a $10 million license fee.
Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer did not agree, attributing the similarities to trends in the overall entertainment market. She dismissed the lawsuit.
“The features of iLottery games challenged by petitioners are not signature, iconic, or key features particular to casino slot machines,” Jubelirer wrote. “Rather, they are features that: relate to technological advances in online gaming; are based on online entertainment and gaming, as well as existing entertainment sources like television and board games which have indisputably inspired both iLottery game and slot machines game designers; or existed in the same or similar fashion in traditional lottery products that were translated into a new online medium.”
Jubelirer wrote that the legislature, in framing the 2017 gaming expansion law that added both the iLottery and internet gaming, did not intend to preclude either medium from taking advantage of technological advances in gaming or entertainment.
Pennsylvania Lottery Executive Director Drew Svitko lauded the decision. “Because the lottery’s online games have been an incredible success—generating more than $170 million in profit since their launch in May 2018—we have another popular product in our portfolio that helps us responsibly generate funds for programs that benefit older Pennsylvanians,” Svitko said, according to the Penn Live news site.
Pennsylvania’s online casinos linked to commercial operators as revenues jump from $240.9 million in 2019-20 to $707.1 million for the first 10 months of the current fiscal year.
The operators, who could appeal the decision, have made no public comments on the ruling.
