Pennsylvania Gambling Laws
Pennsylvania has legalized most forms of online gambling. You can play online casino games, enter poker tournaments, bet on sports, place pari-mutuel wagers, enter DFS contests, and buy online lottery tickets in the Keystone State.
There are lots of land-based gambling options too, including large casino resorts, mini-casinos, horse racing tracks, off-track betting parlors, and retail sports betting lounges.
This page breaks down the various Pennsylvania gambling laws. We will explain what’s legal for players, and we will also discuss the consumer protection regulations you will benefit from when you play at legal online casinos in Pennsylvania.
What forms of online gambling are legal in PA?
Players in Pennsylvania can enjoy a wide range of legal online gambling options:
- Casino games – You can play slots, virtual table games, video poker, and live dealer games at PA online casinos.
- Poker – Players can compete in poker tournaments and take part in cash games at PA online poker sites and apps.
- Lottery – The official PA iLottery site allows you to buy online lottery tickets, and you can also play a wide range of instant win games.
- Sports betting – Legal online sportsbooks take bets on football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and loads of other sports.
- DFS – Players in Pennsylvania can also enter daily fantasy sports contests on apps like FanDuel and DraftKings, and you can place pari-mutuel bets at online racebooks too.
Let’s discuss the Pennsylvania laws and regulations for online casinos, poker rooms, iLottery games, sportsbooks, and DFS in greater detail.
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf legalized online casinos when he signed HB 271 in October 2017. This bill amended the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act, which was initially passed in 2004, and it became Act 42.
Each of the state’s 13 land-based casinos was given the chance to apply for interactive gaming licenses, covering online slots, table games, and poker. There is no limit on the number of online casinos that a land-based casino can host on its master license. For example, Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course hosts four online casino skins: BetMGM, DraftKings Casino, Fanatics Casino, and Hollywood Casino.
More than 20 online casinos have launched in Pennsylvania. They have all teamed up with a brick-and-mortar casino, except for Bally Casino, which paid a $4 million fee to launch as a qualified gaming entity, with no land-based partner. PA online gambling taxes require casinos to pay a 54% revenue tax on slots and a 16% revenue tax on table games.
Online poker was also legalized when Gov. Wolf signed HB 271. That bill amended the Pennsylvania Race Horse and Development Act to authorize poker apps and websites.
Land-based casinos in the Keystone State can host online poker rooms on their interactive gaming licenses. There is no limit on the number of online poker sites they can team up with.
However, there are currently just four legal poker sites in the Keystone State: PokerStars, WSOP, BetMGM Poker, and Borgata Poker. Pennsylvania is not yet part of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement, so you can only play against fellow Pennsylvanians at those sites.
Pennsylvania legalized online sports betting when Act 42 was approved in 2017. The US Supreme Court overturned a federal sports wagering ban the following year, paving the way for legal online sports betting to begin in Pennsylvania.
The first PA online sportsbooks launched in May 2019. They are permitted to take bets on professional and college sports, but you cannot place prop bets on college games in the Keystone State.
Each of Pennsylvania’s 13 land-based casinos can host a single online sportsbook on its master license. Operators must pay a $10 million licensing fee to launch an online sportsbook, and they must then pay a 36% revenue tax each month.
Pennsylvania also authorized online lottery games when Act 42 was approved in 2017. The Pennsylvania Lottery launched an official site, pailottery.com, in May 2018.
The site sells online tickets for in-state draw games like Pick 5 and Pick 4, plus multi-state games such as Powerball and Mega Millions. There are also more than 150 instant win games, known as eInstants, on the site.
However, the eInstants have proved controversial, as they are similar to online casino games, and the law passed in 2017 stipulates that PA iLottery cannot “simulate casino-style lottery games.”
FanDuel began running Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) in Pennsylvania after launching in 2009, and DraftKings followed suit a few years later. However, those companies operated in a legal gray area for several years, as fantasy sports contests were never explicitly permitted, but they were not prohibited either.
That all changed when Gov. Wolf signed HB 271 into law in 2017, as the bill officially legalized fantasy sports contests. Pennsylvania’s regulated DFS industry launched in May 2018, and operators like FanDuel and DraftKings must now pay a 15% revenue tax.
Regular DFS contests are legal in Pennsylvania, but the state does not allow pick’em contests on apps like Underdog. DraftKings and FanDuel remain the most popular DFS apps in the state, but players can also sign up with Yahoo Fantasy and several smaller sites.
PA retail locations and the law
Players in Pennsylvania can also enjoy in-person gambling at various establishments. Here are all the options, along with how they became legal possibilities in PA.
Casinos
The Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act was passed in 2004. This act legalized slot machines in the Keystone State. It also created four casino license categories:
- Category 1: The state’s seven horse racing tracks were permitted to host up to 5,000 slot machines, turning them into racinos. Philadelphia Park Racetrack evolved into Parx Casino, the largest casino in the state, while Hollywood Casino at The Meadows also became popular.
- Category 2: The act authorized the creation of five standalone casinos. It stipulated that two of these must be Philadelphia Casinos, one must be a Pittsburgh Casino, and the remaining two should be located elsewhere in the state. Each standalone casino can offer up to 5,000 slots.
- Category 3: Two resort casinos were also authorized. They are only permitted to host up to 600 slot machines.
- Category 4: Existing casinos can establish smaller, secondary locations, known as satellite casinos.
The Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act was amended in 2010 to permit table games at land-based casinos. Racinos and standalone casinos can offer up to 250 table games, whereas resort casinos are limited to no more than 50 table games.
Casinos pay a 36% revenue tax on slot machines and a 14% revenue tax on table games in Pennsylvania.
Excluding satellites, there are now 13 land-based casinos in Pennsylvania. The largest casinos in terms of revenue are Parx Casino in Bensalem, Wind Creek Bethlehem, and Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh.
Mini-casinos
Four casinos in Pennsylvania have launched smaller, satellite venues, which are known as mini-casinos:
- Live! Casino Pittsburgh (Cordish Companies)
- Hollywood Casino York (Penn Entertainment)
- Hollywood Casino Morgantown (Penn Entertainment)
- Parx Shippensburg (Greenwood Gaming)
These mini-casinos hold Category 4 licenses. They are permitted to host up to 40 table games and between 300 and 750 slot machines under the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act.
Sportsbooks
The Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act was amended again in 2017 to permit in-person sports betting at land-based casinos. At the time, sports wagering was still prohibited at a federal level, but that all changed when the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, in May 2018.
The first land-based sportsbooks were cleared to open in November 2018. All 13 land-based casinos in Pennsylvania now offer retail sports betting lounges. Many are run by the most famous names in the business, such as FanDuel Sportsbook at Live! Casino Philadelphia and Caesars Sportsbook at Harrah’s Philadelphia.
There are also land-based sportsbooks at two off-track betting parlors. Parx Casino’s parent company runs the South Philadelphia Race & Sportsbook, while The Downs at Lehigh Valley also has a sports betting lounge. That means there are 15 retail sportsbooks in Pennsylvania.
Horse racing tracks
The Race Horse Industry Reform Act of 1959 legalized pari-mutuel betting on horse races in Pennsylvania. Greyhound racing is not permitted in the Keystone State.
There are now six horse racing tracks in Pennsylvania. You can enjoy thoroughbred racing at Parx Casino and Racing, Presque Isle Downs, and Penn National Racecourse, while harness racing is hosted at Harrah’s Philadelphia, The Meadows, and Mohegan Pennsylvania.
Those venues can all take pari-mutuel bets on horse races. You can bet on live races hosted at each track, along with simulcast racing from around the country.
At one point, there were more than 15 off-track betting locations in Pennsylvania. However, most have closed down, and only two remain: The Downs at Lehigh Valley, and South Philadelphia Race & Sportsbook.
Skill games
There are more than 100,000 unregulated “skill machines” in Pennsylvania, according to Penn Entertainment. They have sprung up at bars, gas stations, and convenience stores across the Keystone State.
These cash-paying electronic terminals resemble slot machines, but they focus on simple games of skill, such as puzzle solving. The operators do not pay taxes, and they do not fall under the jurisdiction of any regulatory bodies.
They are marketed as legal under the flag of a 2014 Beaver County court decision, although the casino industry claims they are illegal. Opponents argue that these machines have no accountability, and they do not feature anti-money laundering controls or underage gambling checks, while the payout rates are vague.
The Commonwealth Court unanimously ruled that the games are legal in December 2023, but the industry continues to oppose them. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will now decide whether skill games are unlicensed gambling machines and should, therefore, be shut down.
PA gambling law FAQ
You must be 21 or older to play online casino games, bet on sports, or take part in poker tournaments and cash games in Pennsylvania. The legal age for in-person casino gaming, poker, and sports betting is also 21.
Anyone aged 18 or older can buy lottery tickets, place pari-mutuel bets on horse races, enter fantasy sports contests, participate in sweepstakes, or take part in charity gaming in the Keystone State.
A group of Pennsylvania casinos filed a petition against the Department of Revenue, claiming that the eInstant games on the PA iLottery site simulate slot machines. State law prohibits the site from offering “interactive lottery games which simulate casino-style lottery games, specifically including poker, roulette, slot machines or blackjack.”
The casinos moved for a preliminary injunction, aiming to stop the Department of Revenue from offering iLottery games that include similar features to online slots, such as autoplay, adjustable bets, bonus rounds, and reveal all options. The Commonwealth Court denied the preliminary injunction, determining that eInstants are different to slots.
However, the casinos appealed, and the Commonwealth Court’s decision was vacated by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in December 2023, so the legal battle is still ongoing.
The Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) allows several states to pool online poker players. There are currently five members: Delaware, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, and West Virginia.
Online poker sites can welcome players from all five of those states, so a player from Delaware might end up at the same table as players based in New Jersey and Nevada. That allows poker players to benefit from increased traffic and liquidity.
Pennsylvania has not yet joined MSIGA. Rep. George Dunbar introduced a bill in March 2024 that seeks to add Pennsylvania to the interstate gaming compact, but it has not yet been approved.
Resources used on this page
We used the following government websites to compile the information on this page: