Mount Airy Casino is located north of Philadelphia in northeast Pennsylvania, near the border with New York State.
Mount Airy Casino in Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania signed a deal with The Stars Group on Friday to allow PokerStars to offer online poker, casino gaming, and sports betting on the Mount Airy gambling site. Vincent Jordan, VP of Marketing & Gaming Operations for Mount Airy Casino, said the move was the “obvious next step” to providing diversified gaming opportunities for the casino’s customers.
The Montreal-based Stars Group is the parent company of PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site. PokerStars has 70% of the global Internet poker niche and dominates any market it operates in.
The partnership gives PokerStars an entry into the Pennsylvania online gambling market. A year ago, Pennsylvania legislators were discussing a ban on PokerStars as a “bad actor”, due to the company’s decision to accept US players after the UIGEA went into effect on December 31, 2006 and the Black Friday scandal broke on April 15, 2011.
The ban on bad actors never happened, which cleared the way for PokerStars/Stars Group to make the current deal with Mount Airy Casino. As for the small casino in northeastern Pennsylvania, it suddenly becomes a major player in the online poker market of Pennsylvania.
PokerStars and Mount Airy Casino
Matt Primeaux, the SVP of Strategy & Operations for Stars Group, said of the Mount Airy Casino deal, “We’re excited to take this next step as The Stars Group looks to broaden its presence in the United States. In partnership with Mount Airy Casino Resort, we believe we’re well positioned to capitalize on opportunities in the Commonwealth by bringing our world-leading offerings to Pennsylvania players.”
Over the past 3 years, Stars Group has devoted significant resources to building up its online casino and bookmaker technology. For instance, PokerStars Casino has a huge list of online casino games, including mainline support from Playtech, Microgaming, and NetEnt. PokerStars Casino also has support from top B2B slots providers like NextGen, Play’n GO, Quickspin, and Leander Games. In addiction, the site uses Evolution Gaming software for live dealer games.
PokerStars Well-Placed for Pennsylvania
With such a large list of license providers with existing deals for online slots, “Play PokerStars Pennsylvania” could produce something similar to what SugarHouse Casino has done with the Golden Nugget Atlantic City Casino’s sub-license in New Jersey. SugarHouse Casino supplanted Borgata Online as the top online casino in New Jersey, because it offered slots from IGT, Bally Technologies, WMS Gaming, and Konami.
As for Mount Airy’s potential online sportsbook, Stars Group has bought several top online bookmaker sites in the last few months. BetStars is the default sports betting brand for PokerStars and Stars Group, but the company bought CrownBet and SkyBet. While those brands might not directly compete in Pennsylvania, the sports betting technology and know-how from the Stars Group developers is now world-class.
Mount Airy’s VP of Marketing & Gaming Operations, Vincent Jordan, said in a public statement, “As one of Pennsylvania’s leaders in entertainment, offering internet sports wagering and gaming and partnering with The Stars Group is the obvious next step for us to continue diversifying our casino offerings. Introducing internet gaming through The Stars Group will provide compelling opportunities for our customers, particularly our younger customers, who are ready to experience the next gaming challenge.”
Parx Casino’s Deal with GAN
Parx Casino in Bensalem is the only other land-based Pennsylvania casinos to sign an online betting contract so far. Parx signed with Games Account Network (GAN), a UK-based business-to-business (B2B) turnkey games provider which supplies Paddy Power-Betfair, FanDuel, and Meadowlands Racetrack with gaming software.
Games Account Network also works with IGT, NetEnt, Aristocrat Leisure, Ainsworth Gaming, SkyBet, and SportingBet as a B2B supplier. GAN received EGR’s North American Platform of the Year for 2015 and EGaming award for innovation in 2006. GAN has worked alongside Paddy Power since 2004, while the company has supplied software to Parx Casino’s brick-and-mortar operation since 2014.
GAN uses the GameStack Internet gaming enterprise software system to provide online casino and poker support. It also uses the Sense3 mobile gaming software to support Android and IOS gambling.
