Pennsylvania ready for online gaming, but poker has to wait

Online gambling in PA kicks off next Monday

The first real-money online casino is coming to Pennsylvania next Monday. It should be the beginning of an entirely new period for the state, with Pennsylvanians able to gamble virtually anytime, anywhere. Unfortunately for poker players, though, the chance of action still evades them, as online poker won’t be among the options made available.

Parx Casino is set to become the first casino in Pennsylvania to launch an online gambling house. At 2 PM local time, Pennsylvanians will have their trigger fingers ready and Parx is helping them mark the time. They’ve created a countdown clock on their website so players will know exactly when to start gambling.

This will only be a soft launch as the site determines if there are any bugs that need to be worked out. Table games, video poker, slots and even live dealer games will be offered, as will sports gambling. However, because the country still doesn’t quite understand what the Department of Justice (DOJ) plans on doing about its position on the Federal Wire Act, it has decided to put poker on the back burner.

Even if a federal judge decided that the DOJ was completely wrong and out of line for changing its position on the Wire Act, Pennsylvania’s attorney general and the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board want casinos in the state to place nicely and, at least for now, play by the DOJ’s rules. This could – and most likely will – change once 2020 rolls around.

Parx is only one of the venues ready to enter the online gaming space in Pennsylvania. Two others should be ready to launch next week, as well, but one is still finalizing its operations.