Pennsylvania’s Rivers Casino pulls online gambling application

Pennsylvania’s Rivers Casino has backed off its plans to launch online gambling in the state, freeing up three more product licenses for hopeful out-of-state entities.

On Thursday, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) announced that the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh had withdrawn its application to offer online poker, slots and table games, as permitted under the gambling expansion legislation the state approved last year.

The PGCB’s statement offered no explanation behind Rivers’ motivation for withdrawing its application, which the company had submitted back in July. Rivers is also one of five Pennsylvania casinos that has applied to offer sports betting in the state, and the company appears content to keep that application alive.

Rivers, along with the SugarHouse casino in Philadelphia, is owned by Rush Street Gaming, whose digital division has been active in New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market via the PlaySugarHouse brand since 2016. Rush Street has offered no indication that it intends to withdraw the Pennsylvania online application filed by its SugarHouse casino.