A major casino/hotel complex is coming to the South Philadelphia Stadium District, situated among Citizens Bank Ballpark, Lincoln Financial Field, and the Wells Fargo Center. Despite some construction interruptions due to COVID-19 concerns and the current complication of extreme unrest in the city, Cordish Gaming Group projects that the Live! Casino & Hotel’s doors will open in the waning months of 2020.
It appears customers won’t have to wait quite that long, though, to play the operator’s slots and table games.
Cordish announced an agreement with GAN as the software provider for the “PlayLive!” online casino, with plans to launch on web and mobile in the fall.
The virtual casino will get a head start on both the South Philly property and a second Live! project near Pittsburgh, a mini-casino in Westmoreland County, also on track for a ribbon-cutting around the end of 2020.
The first to go online first
The most recent online casino in the state opened in late April, when DraftKings Casino brought Pennsylvania’s count to 10 iCasinos. Each of those mobile casinos is partnered with a land-based facility that opened first.
PlayLive! will be unique, assuming the projected launch dates don’t change.
While Tennessee will soon welcome sports betting sites and apps without any land-based casinos at all in the state, the Live! Casino situation is poised to be the first with a digital property opening before its physical counterparts.
There is no information yet about exactly what games PlayLive! will feature, but Parx Casino’s online offering, also in partnership with GAN, should offer some clues.
“Bringing Pennsylvania’s newest casino online later this year will be a genuine privilege, and we look forward to supporting their on-property gaming business by leveraging our U.S. patented iBridge Framework, bridging the internet gambling experience with that of retail gaming,” said GAN Limited CEO Dermot Smurfit in a statement. “Online will remain the growth driver of this industry for decades to come, not just in Pennsylvania but across the nation.”
The South Philadelphia brick-and-mortar casino, ideally situated for pre-game or post-game entertainment for Philly sports fans, is projected to feature 2,200 slot machines and at least 150 table games. The smaller Pittsburgh-area property is expected to have 750 slots and approximately 30 gaming tables.
Assuming PlayLive! does indeed launch before the land-based venues, customers will be able to enroll in the “Live! Rewards” loyalty program before the casinos open their doors and begin swiping actual player cards.
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