Pennsylvania plans to allow online gambling in early summer

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) executive director Kevin O’Toole has revealed before the Pennsylvania House Appropriations Committee that online gambling is the state is likely to start operation around July.

“We are getting close,” O’Toole told the committee. “If not right before the end of this fiscal year, definitely at the beginning of the next.”

The fiscal year starts in July, so O’Toole was essentially suggesting a late spring or early summer start time for online gambling sites.

Time is required to test and certify the software systems that will be used to operate the online casinos and sportsbooks.

But some of the wait may also be due to the new interpretation of the Wire Act issued by the Department of Justice earlier this year. After that opinion was released, the PGCB gave notice to casinos that they would have to fully comply with the Wire Act in order to be licensed to offer online gambling in the state.