The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board "awarded an online gambling license to Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem and another casino while also doling out its first sports betting licenses to two casinos," according to a front-page piece by Steve Esack of the Allentown MORNING CALL. The first sports betting licenses went to Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course near Hershey and Greenwood Gaming and Entertainment, which "operates Parx Casino in Bucks County and the South Philadelphia Turf Club." Pennsylvania would "become the sixth state to offer sports betting when all bureaucratic hurdles are passed." A Parx official said that the goal is to "offer sports wagering in the casino by November, midway through the college football and NFL seasons." Penn National also has "similar plans to phase in sports betting, first at its casino and then online." A sports wagering license costs $10M, but carries a 34% tax rate (Allentown MORNING CALL, 10/4). In Pennsylvania, Charles Thompson wrote the PGCB is "clearly not feeling the fiery urgency of now when it comes to implementation" of sports betting, even though football is "known to be the first love of American sports bettors." The PGCB has repeatedly said that its "emphasis is to get this right, and in this case that means full licensing reviews for oddsmakers and other partners that the casinos are relying on to help run their sports books" (PENNLIVE.com, 10/3).
