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While the US Supreme Court has now made sports betting legal in the Unite States, PA residents will be able to bet the NFL in some of the state's casinos for the upcoming 2019 season. Mobile betting was starting this summer. A few dozen internationally licensed sportsbooks are also available for betting.
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WILL PENNSYLVANIA WELCOME SPORTS BETTING IN THE NEAR FUTURE?
It's not that the state doesn't want it, they already have legalized online casinos and poker. The problem is the rollout has been super slow to date. Most books should be up and running by the start of the 2019-2020 football season.
Herein lies the problem, per Sports Handle:
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) rolled out temporary regulations earlier this summer, but not a single operator has applied for a sports betting license. Potential gaming operators have not been shy about telling the state that it has made the prospect of doing business there all but impossible.
Pennsylvania’s law calls for a whopping $10 million application fee and a combined 36 percent tax rate (34 percent state plus 2 percent local). For comparison, that’s 100 times the initial licensure fee of $100,000 in both West Virginia and New Jersey. On the tax front, New Jersey has an 8.5 percent tax on sports wagering revenue at casinos and 13 percent for online wagering, and West Virginia will levy 10 percent on both. Nevada’s rate is 6.75 percent.
“PNG first notes that the $10 million license fee and 36% tax rate established in the Gaming Expansion Legislation are the highest in the world and may make it impossible for a casino operator to make any return on its investment capital,” Penn National Gaming vice president and general manager Daniel Ihm wrote in his company’s response to the state’s temporary regulations. “Based on the tax rate and the fact that, on average, 95 percent of sports wagers are returned to winning bettors, PNG estimates it could lose approximately 40 cents on every $100 wagered on sporting events.”
Needless-to-say, gamblers from PA will need to rely on international websites to place all their NFL bets if they are unhappy with what the state sportsbooks have to offer. Some of these companies have been around for more than two decades now.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
