Parx Casino Opens New Poker Room
After renovation and rearrangement, Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem in Lehigh Valley unveiled its new poker room last week. After a brief interruption for the move in mid-March the new space next to the Molten Lounge is now fully up and running with several upgrades for an improved player experience.
The Earl of Sandwich would not approve
HOSTED IN PENNSYLVANIA This Online Casino is a free-to-play website with no real money online gaming. Oct 13, 2017 Parx Casino®, Pennsylvania’s #1 casino, has announced today the grand opening of the brand new live entertainment venue, Xcite Center. Parx Poker, the. Poker players around Pennsylvania will once again flock to Philadelphia in March for another popular poker tournament series from Parx Casino. The latest Parx Casino Big Stax XXIV opens with a $2,500 High Roller and events hosted in the new poker room in the main casino building. The new room was part of a $75 million expansion project for the casino, which debuted last month.
The change is a sad one for poker players who also enjoy a good deli sandwich while they play. The new room has moved the poker tables away from the main casino floor and into the space previously used to house the satellite Carnegie Deli eatery at Sands Bethlehem. This was one of the final remaining Carnegie locations after its famous flagship restaurant closed at the beginning of last year.
The new 26 table room boasts an overall updated environment similar to the upgrades competitor Parx Casino added in its new poker room earlier this year, such as new tables with comfort features like a USB charging port for each seat, and a perimeter of nineteen 55-inch LCD televisions around the room. Typical amenities such as table-side dining and massage service of course continued to be offered as before.
Table games
While the new poker room has many features for a better poker experience, the move has actually less to do with poker at Sands Bethlehem and is more about other casino games. In transferring the poker tables into the old deli (losing its 27th table in the process) Sands is going to be able to backfill the previous poker space with additional table games, now permitted to go beyond the previously imposed limit of 250. The planned changes will allow the casino to add 14 more traditional banking tables, 29 more stadium gaming terminals, and 74 more slot machines.
This is a good trade for Sands, as it works out to a 7% increase to overall table game capacity in exchange for a single poker table that was rarely in use. The additional 2% increase in slot machines will also prove convenient for Sands’ $30,000 April Slot Tournament on Friday the 13th, and the $10,000 Super Slot Tournament on Monday the 23rd.
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Performance expectations
Recent poker revenues have already been steady at Sands, with February reporting no month-over-month change from January, which itself had a 5% drop from December, though both months still were still 1% above the six-month average.
Both months so far in 2018 also saw year-over drops from last winter, down 10% for January and 3% for February. This, however, is comparable to the 5% January and 4% February drops for Parx, which opened its new poker room mid-January. It should be noted that January of 2017 was an inordinately poor weather month.
Based on typical poker activity at Sands versus capacity and the results Parx has seen, it is unlikely the new room will affect poker revenues significantly but should improve player satisfaction. Beyond the quality of life upgrades, poker players will finally be isolated from the hollers of table game players and the dings of slot machines.
Table game revenues are more likely to be positively affected.
Sands’ poker tournament schedule will continue the same as before, with daily tournaments at the $75 to $300 dollar levels. Its Bad Beat Jackpot promotion is still running, with the current jackpot up over a whopping $350,000 at this time.
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Pennsylvania is the 7th US state to officially start allowing it’s casinos to take sports bets. The first PA sportsbook was atHollywood Casinowhich opened in November of last year.
Since then, more have followed suit, demonstrating that Pennsylvania is moving fast and furiously into the US’s long suppressed and currently burgeoning sports betting market. In the 2017 legislative session, PA lawmakers paved the way for sports betting, correctly anticipating that in 2018, the US Supreme Court would strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which they did in May of 2018. With their regulatory ducks already lined up, PA regulators were quick to offer sportsbetting licenses to their local casinos – at a price of $10 million each. Many have jumped at the opportunity.
Pennsylvania’s 5th sportsbook opened last week and it is Parx Casino’s second physical location for sports lovers to place bets. The new book is located at Parx’sSouth Philly Turf Club location next to Citizen’s Bank Field, home of the Phillies. Parx Casino wasted no time. They had launched their first sportsbook at their Parx Casino property earlier in the month.
Where are Pennsylvania’s sportsbooks?
This makes three operating sportsbooks in the Philadelphia region, the other two being in Pittsburgh and in the Harrisburg/Hershey region. The locations and operators are:
| Casino | Location |
|---|---|
| Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course | Harrisburg/Hershey region |
| SugarHouse Casino | Philadelphia region |
| Rivers Casino | Pittsburgh region |
| Parx Casino | Philadelphia region |
| Philly Turf Club (operated by Parx) | Philadelphia region |
South Philly Turf Club has it all
Parx Casino’s new sportsbook is located at 700 Packer Avenue, just off the I-95. It’s a convenient location for sports fans as it’s quite near Wells Fargo Center, Lincoln Financial Field, as well as Citizens Bank Park.
The South Philly Club Sportsbook is open every day. Most days the book begins taking bets at noon with extended hours during the weekend. Parking and admission are free.
- Monday thru Thursday: noon – midnight
- Friday: noon – 2am
- Saturday: 10am – 2am
- Sunday: 10am – midnight
The sportsbook accepts bets on all the major US sports, college sports, boxing, MMA, and much much more. In addition, they feature many types of wagers including point spreads, a moneyline, totals, parlays, teasers, and more.
In addition, patrons at both Parx sportsbook locations can use the Betslip Builderapp to construct wagers prior to arriving at the betting window. This feature saves a lot of time at the window and gives us a glimpse of what the Parx Casino mobile sports betting system will look like when it’s launched.
Mobile betting?
While the Betslip Builder app that Parx has introduced is pretty and convenient, it isn’t actually mobile (online) wagering. That won’t be rolled out for a while longer and that decision is up to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB). They are waiting to make sure the retail sportsbook operations are up and running with no problems before they give the green light for casino operators to take their books online.
Of course, all this assumes that the recent revised DOJ opinionregarding the Wire Act doesn’t disrupt the process. Upon it’s release earlier this month, state regulators as well as casino operators (and their lawyers) have been scrambling to determine the scope and impact of the new opinion.
Maybe it’ll blow over and change very little. Maybe it’ll disallow the merging of online poker player pools. Maybe it’ll destroy all online gaming. As of now, nobody is certain.
For their part, the PGCB has stated that online gaming will proceed in the state but warned casinos to ensure that all gambling transactions occur within the state. Given the vagaries of how the modern Internet works, it’s unclear if that is even possible. Still, it’s good to know that the PGCB intends to move forward.
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More sportsbooks on the way
Parx Casino New Poker Area
Other casino operators are also in the pipeline to sportsbook licensure and operation. Harrah’s Philadelphia and Valley Forge Resort Casinohave applied and been approved for sportsbook licenses and are expected to launch very soon – Harrah’s is expected to soft-launch this week. In addition, Presque Isle Downs and Casinohave also applied but are still awaiting PGCB approval.
That makes seven casino operators and eight retail sportsbooks in Pennsylvania (or on the way) but more could eventually join the party. There are still six casinos that are eligible to apply for a sportsbook license that haven’t yet done so. In addition each can apply for multiple retail locations (as Parx Casino has done).
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When all is said and done, who knows how many retail sportsbooks Pennsylvanians will have access to? Access will be even more available once (if) mobile betting is launched – one need not be anywhere near a retail sportsbook as long as they have the relevant app and are located within the state.
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All in all it’s a good time to be a sports bettor in Pennsylvania.