PA Online Gambling
The PA online gambling market is now firing on all cylinders. You have multiple online casinos and PA sports betting sites to choose from. Pennsylvania players can also play legal online poker.
If you want to get playing right now, there are plenty of great regulated gambling sites and legal online casino sites in PA you can get started on in a matter of minutes. Take a look at the best options available to Pennsylvania customers.
Best online gambling sites in Pennsylvania
Casino players have a handful of options when it comes to online gambling and there is only one poker site accepting PA players. These legal PA gambling sites are our top suggestions of where you should play:
Is online gambling legal in PA?
On Oct. 26, 2017. Gov. Tom Wolf signed H 271 into law, enacting widespread gambling expansion that extends beyond just PA online casinos.
Here is a look at exactly what the law authorizes:
- Online poker
- Online casino games (table games and slots)
- Sports betting, both retail and online
- Online lottery
- Daily fantasy sports
- Tablet gaming in certain areas at authorized airports
- Video gambling terminals (VGTs) at qualified truck stops
- Mini-casinos
The law allowed the state to regulate and legalize these activities, but the law does not mean that every online casino site or sports betting app is suddenly legal in Pennsylvania. Only sites vetted, approved, and overseen by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) are legal.
All of the legal real-money gambling sites are very clearly tied to a land-based casino in the state. For example, FanDuel Sportsbook (and now, FanDuel Casino), works in tandem with Valley Forge and BetRivers and SugarHouse are brands under the two Rivers Casinos in the state.
Online casinos in Pennsylvania
Legal online casinos in Pennsylvania launched in 2019. After starting with three sites, the industry is now reaching maturity with over a dozen to choose from. The state awarded 10 casinos interactive gaming licenses initially. Live! and BetMGM were later additions that both now have iGaming offerings in PA. Golden Nugget Casino could also join PA as it was approved as a Qualified Gaming Entity.
This is the latest info on all of these online casino projects:
| Rank | PA Casinos | Bonus Offer | Progressive | Slots | Play Now! |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | BetMGM Casino | $25 Free + 100% up to $1,000 | Divine Fortune + Mercy of the Gods | 80+ | Play Now! |
| 2. | Unibet Casino | $30 Free + 100% up to $750 | Jackpot Shores + Divine Fortune | 75+ | Play Now! |
| 3. | Caesars Casino | 100% up to $2,021 | N/A | 36+ | Play Now! |
| 4. | DraftKings Casino | $45 Free + 100% up to $1,500 | N/A | 25+ | Play now! |
| 5. | FanDuel Casino | $200 Risk-Free | N/A | 25+ | Play Now! |
| 6. | Stars Casino | Bet $1, Get a $50 Instant Casino Bonus | N/A | 25+ | Play Now! |
| 7. | BetRivers Casino | 100% up to $250 | Divine Fortune | 50+ | Play Now! |
| 8. | Fox Bet Casino | 100% up to $1,500 | N/A | 12+ | Play Now! |
| 9. | Sugarhouse Casino | 100% up to $250 | Divine Fortune | 70+ | Play Now! |
| 10. | Hollywood Casino | $10 Free + 100% up to $502 | Divine Fortune | 80+ | Play Now! |
| 11. | Borgata Online Casino | 100% up to $1,000 + $20 free | MGM Grand Millions | 100+ | Play Now! |
PA sports betting sites
Every casino in Pennsylvania, save for Lady Luck Nemacolin, applied for a $10 million sports betting license. There are now more than ten online sports betting apps operational in PA.
Here is a look at where each operator is in the process:
| Casino | Online Sportsbook | App? | Bonus | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DraftKings (The Meadows) | Live as of Nov. 2019 | Android and iOS | $50 Free | Play now! |
| FOX Bet (Mount Airy) | Live as of Sept. 2019 | Android and iOS | $500 Risk Free | Play now! |
| BetMGM Sportsbook (Hollywood Morgantown) | Live as of Dec. 2020 | Android and iOS | $600 Deposit Bonus | Play now! |
| FanDuel Sportsbook PA (Valley Forge) | Live as of July 2019 | Android and iOS | $1,000 Risk Free | Play now! |
| Unibet (Mohegan Sun Pocono) | Live as of Nov. 2019 | Android and iOS via GeoGuard | $40 Free | Play now! |
| PlaySugarHouse Sportsbook PA | Live as of May 2019 | Android and iOS via GeoGuard | $250 Deposit Bonus | Play now! |
| BetRivers Online Sportsbook | Live as of June 2019 | Android and iOS via GeoGuard | $250 Deposit Bonus | Play now! |
| Parx Casino Sportsbook | Live as of June 2019 | Android | ||
| BetAmerica (Presque Isle Downs) | Live as of Dec. 2019 | GeoGuard web access | ||
| Caesars Sportsbook (Harrah's Philadelphia) | Live as of March 2020 | Android, Desktop, iOS to come | $10 Free | |
| Barstool Sportsbook (Penn National) | Live as of Sept. 2020 | Android and iOS | ||
| Betfred Sportsbook (Wind Creek) | Live as of Dec. 2020 | Android, iOS, and Desktop | ||
| Live! Hotel & Casino | TBA | TBA |
Real-money gambling apps in PA
Here is a look at when the state’s online casinos, sportsbooks, and poker site launched:
05/28/2019
06/24/2019
06/25/2019
07/15/2019
07/15/2019- 07/17/2019
07/25/2019
09/04/2019
11/04/2019
11/04/2019
11/12/2019
12/20/2019
What online casino options are in PA?
Pennsylvania online casinos rolled out on July 15, 2019.
Initially, the thought was that everyone would launch on or around this day, but only two, Parx Casino and Hollywood Casino, were ready. SugarHouse Casino rolled out PlaySugarHouse.com two days later.
Months later in early November, Stars Casino debuted alongside PokerStars PA online poker site. Unibet Casino followed a couple of weeks later. FanDuel Casino launched at the end of January, 2020, making PA the first state to house an online casino with FanDuel branding.
BetAmerica and BetRivers Casino joined the market during the week leading up to the Super Bowl, both launching on Jan. 30. Caesars launched on April 23. Before the end of 2020, Wind Creek, PlayLive! and BetMGM online casinos also launched in PA. Borgata joined in Feb. 2021.
Each of these online casinos offer growing libraries of games after most started out small. Things that are commonplace in New Jersey, like live dealer games, are now available in Pennsylvania and a number of online casinos offer them.
The online gambling industry in PA is now chugging along at full steam, despite lagging behind the offerings of neighboring New Jersey. Why the slow start in PA?
The short answer is the Wire Act. Ever since the Department of Justice released a new, much stricter, interpretation of the Wire Act in January 2019, Pennsylvania regulators took an extremely conservative approach to online gambling. Part of that approach includes having every operator and every casino game provider stand up separate servers in Pennsylvania. Because operators and game providers planned on sharing New Jersey servers with their PA products, the change in regulations caused delays.
But now that most operators are live and competition is strong, the number of game offerings is catching up fast in PA.
What PA sports betting sites are live and legal?
Online sportsbooks, on the other hand, got off to a hotter start.
After initial slim pickings for iPhone users seeking to sports bet in Pennsylvania, they now have several options to choose from. Parx and Caesars are currently the only sportsbooks without an iPhone option.
Unibet, BetRivers, and PlaySugarHouse do not have an iOS app for sportsbook users, but all three offer browser-based betting in tandem with the GeoGuard app, a geolocation app from GeoComply that allows for browser gaming.
The launch of FanDuel Sportsbook was when the market for Pennsylvania sports betting really started to open up. The sportsbook combined the PA and New Jersey app into a single venture for both Android and iOS, with the site geolocating you to determine what you can bet on. DraftKings Sportsbook similarly offers a single app that works in all states where DraftKings accepts regulated sports bets.
FOX Bet also launched with both iOS and Android options when it went live in September 2019, but it segregates apps based on states and offers a separate PA and NJ version for users.
The big perk of this for users is the shared wallet across states. If you go back and forth between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, no more worrying about whether or not the right account is properly funded.
Online poker in PA
The first PA poker site, PokerStars PA, went live in November 2019, over two years after the law legalizing and regulating it passed. Another six casinos have obtained licenses to offer online poker, in addition to BetMGM.
Eventually these casinos should offer online poker alongside Mount Airy, Stars’ casino partner in PA.
- Harrah’s
- Rivers Casino
- Hollywood Casino
- Parx
- Valley Forge
- Wind Creek
- MGM
There are two likely candidates to first follow Stars in PA. One is WSOP.com, in partnership with Harrah’s Philadelphia. The other contender to get going in PA next is BetMGM and/or partypoker PA. These sites are operational in New Jersey. WSOP.com is also available in Nevada and Delaware.
Before you get too excited about the prospect of playing online poker with players in New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada, which share a compacting agreement, be advised that the PGCB’s conservative approach to the Wire Act means compacting may take some time.
Compacting with other states is possible in the law and PGCB regulations, but uncertainty around interpretation of the Wire Act has caused hesitation in PA. However, a court ruling against a 2018 DOJ Wire Act Opinion in January 2021 should at least open up the possibility.
