Two months after the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board began its first 90-day application window for receiving online gaming applications from the state’s brick-and-mortar casino licensees, the state has received a total of… zero.
As of last week, a gaming board spokesman told Online Gaming Report, the state has received no Interactive Gaming Petitions. It may be due to the fact that the first 90-day application period is dedicated under the gaming expansion law only to combined licenses for online poker, slot games and table games (and only from current licensees).
A combined license comes with a $10 million fee. After the initial 90-day period, individual slot, table and poker iGaming licenses will be accepted, at a fee of $4 million apiece.
When assessing why licensees are not storming the PGCB gates for iGaming licenses, most observers point to an onerous tax on licenses for online slot games, which are by far the most profitable in current iGaming states New Jersey and Delaware. The expansion law set the online slot revenue tax at 54 percent, the same as the land-based slot tax. By comparison, New Jersey taxes all online gaming revenue at 15 percent.
Should no current operators apply for individual iGaming licenses in the next application window beginning in mid-July, the applications will open up to entities outside of the state.
