Hollywood is spreading its partnerships and will have an online sportsbook powered by Kambi when launched. Hollywood Casino app Hollywood offers players an interactive mobile application to play all online games anywhere in the state. Both online and retail sports betting are taxed at 34% plus a 2% local share assessment (36% total). Benefits of regulated PA online sports betting. You may be wondering why you should bother betting at a casino sportsbook or betting app instead of offshore sites or a local bookie. The Hollywood Casino at Penn National became the first Pennsylvania casino to offer its customers an operating sportsbook when it launched in November 2018. The sportsbook features individual viewing stations, a 50-foot wall of televisions, and sports wagers that range from football, baseball, and basketball to rugby, cricket, and cycling.
PA online sports betting has been getting all the attention lately, but the focus should begin to swivel towards online and mobile app casino’s in PA.The recent launch of the UNIBET Casino app in PA and the pending DraftKings online casino, will certainly accelerate i-gaming casino revenue in the state. Hollywood Casino went live first in PA with their brick and mortar sportsbook. They have partnered with betting giant William Hill for this venue. They are also expected to partner with this international betting giant for their online sportsbook. This will enable anyone inside Pennsylvania to bet online.
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The whispers that November is the month sports betting launches in Pennsylvania are getting louder.
On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) approved a slew of applications. The headliners were the three sportsbook and two online casinos.
There was another important application in the bunch though.
PGCB approved William Hill’s application to do business in Pennsylvania as a sports betting provider. The European gaming giant is the sports betting partner of Penn National Gaming, owner and operator of Hollywood Casino.
This application was a key component of the conditions Hollywood Casino Sportsbook needed to satisfy in order to launch. With that hurdle cleared, the property expects to start taking bets as soon as two weeks from now.
Why does the William Hill application matter?
When PGCB approves a PA sports betting license applicant, it is conditional. That means the casino must check off a list of to-dos issued by the PGCB Office of Enforcement Council before they can actually open up shop.
Each sportsbook applicant has a list of roughly two dozen conditions. They tend to all into two categories: applications and trials. You can’t really start trials until you have applications squared away.
Now that William Hill is an approved sports betting operator, the application boxes are ticked. No more waiting for PGCB to sign off on paperwork.
What comes next for Hollywood Casino Sportsbook?
Now Penn National and William Hill move on to the last set of conditions — testing.
This piece of the puzzle contains several parts. The good news is that William Hill’s experience in the field should serve them well.
William Hill and its New Jersey partners Monmouth Park Racetrack, Ocean Resort Casino, and Tropicana Casino just went through this process in New Jersey. In William Hill’s case, they just went through it three separate times.
Certainly, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have different regulatory standards, but familiarity with Garden State should hasten the process and reduce the number of errors during the testing period.
The two companies already launched a retail betting product in West Virginia as well, which should make integration of William Hill into the Hollywood system much smoother.
Should we give thanks for PA sports betting?
Penn National told Penn Live they hope to launch its retail sportsbook at Hollywood Casino in “mid-to-late November.” Looking at the calendar, it is hard not to think that Thanksgiving weekend would be an ideal time to be up and operational. The high-profile NFL games plus time off from work to potentially make the trip to Grantville sounds like a winning recipe.
With the NFL regular season already halfway over and NCAA football conference titles on the horizon, every week matters to the sports betting world. All the more reason it makes sense that Penn will push to launch before Thanksgiving.
One final reason we are hoping Penn and PGCB agree on the green light before Turkey Day? Those holiday days off are days where people are not at work to approve what needs to be approved, pushing a launch date back even further.
No mobile betting app just yet
To be perfectly clear, this launch will only be for the retail sportsbook on property at Hollywood Casino. While New Jersey was content to greenlight retail and mobile at the same time, PGCB is playing it more conservatively. Casinos will need to demonstrate that their retail book is in order before it gets the go on mobile betting.
There should be mobile betting on property early on in the process, which means you can dodge the lines and use your phone. Betting from your couch while the game is on will not come in 2018 though.
Hollywood online casino games
Penn National made two very important partnerships with IGT and NetEnt. These partnerships give players access to a substantial library of popular games to choose from, including Wheel of Fortune, Cleopatra, Davinci Diamonds, Blackjack, and GameKing Video Poker.
Online slots
Slots are a major part of the Hollywood Casino floor, which boasts over 2,400 slots and video poker machines. Despite the high 54% slot tax for online slots in PA, there is a robust slot selection on the online Hollywood Casino.
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Players can find the following popular slots:
- Wolf Run
- Crown of Egypt
- Siberian Storm
- Wheel of Fortune: Triple Extreme Play
- Golden Goddess
- Cleopatra
- Da Vinci Diamonds
- Divine Fortune (progressive)
Online roulette
Hollywood currently offers five different versions of Roulette, most from NetEnt. They are:
- Roulette
- Roulette Advanced
- American Roulette
- European Roulette
- French Roulette
The good news for roulette fans is that most of these roulette versions feature just a single zero on the reel. American Roulette boasts the 00, but every other version follows the European roulette example, which offers much better odds for players.
Online blackjack
Blackjack is one of the most popular games at Hollywood Casino, mostly because it offers some of the best odds for players and relies on a touch of skill.
Blackjack is also a game that can be played with different rule variations, some of which are good for the player, while others favor the house. When you play in Pennsylvania, you don’t have those worries because all the online blackjack games are the same and they are all good.
The rules are set by the PGCB rather than by the individual casinos. Basic strategy players face a house edge of only about .40 percent, making Pennsylvania blackjack one of the best blackjack games in the country. The important rules for this game are as follows:
- Blackjack pays 3:2
- Dealer stands on soft 17
- Doubling down permitted on any two cards
- Doubling down after splits
- Splits up to three hands (except aces)
- Late surrender (As long as the dealer does not have a blackjack, players who don’t like their hand can surrender it prior to playing it out and give up half their bet)
Other games at Hollywood Online Casino
Beyond the games mentioned above, Hollywood offers a wide range of other games for players to enjoy, including nine variants of Game King video poker and baccarat.
Games you are likely to eventually find on the site include:
- Pai Gow Poker
- Let it Ride
- Spanish21
- Slingo
Hollywood live dealer games
Hollywood Casino Pa Sportsbook
While it is not a lock just yet, Hollywood is expected to feature live dealers down the road. Being such a visible live casino, it makes sense to feature the live dealer games.
Hollywood Casino Penn National Sportsbook
Live dealer is an interactive experience in which the players can see a dealer streamed live to their computer managing their game. Typically, you will find live dealer rooms for blackjack, roulette, and baccarat.