Penn National Gaming is closer to launching Pennsylvania’s first online casino after signing agreements with International Game Technology Plc. to deploy the IGT digital gaming platform and with NetEnt Americas LLC, one of the top suppliers of online games in the New Jersey market.
Penn National was the first of nine Pennsylvania casinos to be approved for iGaming licenses, despite the state’s onerous 36 percent effective tax on online slot games, which typically provide the bulk of revenue for online casinos.
With the two deals in place, Penn is on track to be the first to go live with iGaming, with its HollywoodCasino.com site, named for Penn’s flagship Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course outside Harrisburg. The site will offer a full suite of digital gaming products.
“IGT’s digital gaming platform, PlayCommand, will enable online gaming for Penn National’s Pennsylvania-based customers via its online gaming portal—HollywoodCasino.com,” the company said in a press release. “Penn National will also leverage IGT’s PlayCasino to provide its players with an expansive library of player-favorite slot games such as Wheel of Fortune, Elephant King, Ocean Magic and Cleopatra slots. Additionally, Penn National agreed to deploy IGT’s PlayBingo and PlayPoker online solutions.”
The agreement with IGT includes access to content from the supplier’s casino game library. “The flexibility and reliability of the PlayCommand platform, coupled with the proven game library within IGT’s PlayCasino, give us confidence that HollywoodCasino.com will deliver the same caliber of world-class gaming entertainment that our players have come to love in our land-based casinos,” said Chris Sheffield, managing director of PIV and senior vice president of Penn National Gaming.
The deal with NetEnt, a subsidiary of Net Entertainment Malta Ltd., will augment the IGT content on the site. “We are pleased to offer NetEnt’s portfolio of online games to our HollywoodCasino.com customers, and look forward to partnering with NetEnt to launch online gaming in Pennsylvania,” Sheffield said.
NetEnt has a proprietary library of more than 200 games, and provides games for most of the online gaming sites in New Jersey. The Penn deal marks its first contract in Pennsylvania, which legalized iGaming a year ago as part of a massive gaming expansion law.
HollywoodCasino.com is expected to go live by the end of the year, or very early next year.
