Online casinos are seeing a huge boost with a near global quarantine in effect. COVID-19 has forced many of us to move our business and other dealings online, and that includes our gambling.
April 23rd saw a huge move for Caesars Online Casino as the online gambling spot opened up in the state of Pennsylvania. The new set-up is conducted through a partnership with Harrah’s Philadelphia, the state’s premier brick-and-mortar casino. Seeing as through Caesars Entertainment owns Harrah’s, I’m going to go ahead and say this “partnership” was a no-brainer.
The new online PA casino carries 12 slots right now, but you can expect that list of titles to grow. Nearby New Jersey’s online Caesars casino currently features over 500 slots. So it’ll take a while to catch up, if they ever do.
It was only August 2018 when Harrah’s received their online gambling license from the state allowing them to operate online poker. At the time, Pennsylvania became only the fourth state to allow any form of online poker. That small list also includes Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey.
Now, with Caesars opening up an online gambling presence in the Keystone State, there are a total of 9 online casinos operating within the state’s borders.
Online casinos like Bob Casino and Caesars Online Casino bring in huge tax revenues, an obvious boon for any state. This has always been true of casinos, whether they are brick and mortar or online, allowing people to gamble from the comfort of their home.
Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic, I wouldn’t be surprised if state legislators are relooking at the issue and whether or not they should lift restrictions on online casinos. With so many people at home and all physical casinos closed for the time being, there’s an opportunity for states to continue to make revenue through online casinos.
That’s not to say it’s not dicey. In fact, there’s a moral dilemma here as we don’t want people who are already struggling financially to sink what little money they have into an online slot machine or poker game with the hopes of winning.
It seems there’s a balance to be had and with smart legislation we can see more states approving online casinos and online poker.
