Cordish Gaming Group begins testing of Play Live! online casino before land-based venues open
The Cordish Gaming Group is currently working on two Live! brand casinos in Pennsylvania. Both the Live! Casino Pittsburgh and Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia may be in the works, but that is not stopping the Maryland-based company from going ahead with iGaming. Just this week, Cordish began testing playlive.com, with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board monitoring its services.
Three Day Testing Phase:
The testing began on Tuesday afternoon and will continue for three days. Players located in Pennsylvania can visit playlive.com and create an account. Funds can also be deposited, and games played online, but only during the testing hours.
On Tuesday, the site was open from 2 pm to 10 pm. On Wednesday, the site will be open from 2 pm until midnight. On Thursday, the site opens a little earlier at noon and then closes down at midnight. As long as the online casino passes the testing phase, they should be open fully by this Friday.
A Backwards Approach:
It is important to note that the playlive site is launching backward from the norm. Usually, a land-based casino is in place before the online site goes live. Cordish already operates a Live! venue in Maryland and they operate as Stadium Casino LLC in Pennsylvania.
Cordish has plans to open the Live! Casino & Hotel Philadelphia in 2021, after spending $700 million its creation. The Pittsburgh location is not a fully functioning casino, as it is classified as a satellite location. It will cost a much lower $150 million to create and will be ready for service by the end of this year.
The launch may seem odd at first glance since the casinos are not open yet, but it comes at a time when online gambling is booming. With the continued presence of Covid-19, players are staying at home more often than not. With online gambling, it gives people entertainment to enjoy that is safe and free from other people. They can play at home or from anywhere inside the state where an internet connection exists.
There is an appetite for online gambling in Pennsylvania and Cordish will now be able to take advantage of the industry. Back in June, when only 10 online casinos were live in the state, a combined $50.1 million in revenues were generated. This was a slight drop from May, but still a large number for the relatively new market.
The July reports are not out yet and it will not be until October that we see a full report including the Cordish Company’s playlive.com, if they are approved for full operation this Friday. For now, we wait to see if the operator is approved to provide services 24/7.
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