Monthly Archives: October 2018

Pennsylvania issues more online gambling, sports betting permits

Halloween saw Pennsylvania gambling authorities dole out a smorgasbord of regulatory tricks and treats to the state’s casino operators.

Wednesday brought the latest monthly meeting of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), who handed out two online gambling licenses, three sports betting diplomas and five fines to the state’s licensed gaming operators.

The PGCB gave interim approval to the online gambling petitions of Presque Isle Downs (owned by Churchill Downs Inc) in Erie and the unbuilt Stadium Casino project (a joint venture of Cordish Gaming and Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment) in Philadelphia. That brings the state’s number of approved online gambling operators to nine.

However, reports surfaced earlier this month that the Stadium project had hit a snag and that its JV partners were looking to unload their license. The Stadium rep who appeared at Wednesday’s hearing neither confirmed nor denied these rumors, but did say that the project was “in a bit of a pickle” and asked the PGCB to reduce the scope of its online application to slots and table games only, ditching plans to offer online poker.

Imperial Pacific welcomes back Mark Brown as ‘interim chairman’

Saipan casino operator Imperial Pacific International (IPI) has announced the return of former chairman Mark Brown to oversee the stalled completion of the company’s permanent gaming venue.

On Wednesday, IPI issued a statement welcoming back Brown from “retirement” to oversee the “final phase of completion” of the Imperial Pacific Resort, the company’s perpetually delayed permanent gaming venue on Saipan.

Brown, whose long gaming industry pedigree includes overseeing the Trump Hotels and Casinos business, stepped down as IPI’s chairman last December “to pursue other projects close to his family.” Brown assumed the chairman’s seat in January 2017 following a restructuring that saw him give up his role as IPI’s chief executive, a position he’d held since 2015.

Brown will begin serving as “interim chairman” effective November 1 and his brief is to “lend his support to rebuilding and guiding the IPI project to completion.” Brown replaces Henry Cheang, who had been serving as both CEO and chairman of IPI since former chairman Marco Teng stepped down in August after only eight months in the position.