The Pennsylvania Lottery’s internet-based games are safe for now.
Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer denied an injunction request Friday from a group of state casino operators that could, if effective, have caused the Lottery to close down some or all of its on-line games.
The casinos had argued in two days of testimony last month that the Lottery, in rolling out its interactive games final year, provided games that too-closely mimicked what the casinos were authorized to offer on their own on-line gaming platforms inside a sweeping 2017 gambling expansion act.
Cohn Jubelirer discovered that the casinos – most of whom will probably be launch their own Internet-based games later this summer time – had not established they will suffer a particular loss of business due to the competition from the iLottery games.
She also concluded that whilst some iLottery games do bear “striking similarities” to on-line or land-based casino games, the state’s gambling expansion law is ambiguous sufficient about both game categories that she didn’t think the casinos had yet “fully and completely” established a right to relief.
Cohn Jubelirer’s decision on the injunction doesn’t close the case, but it is an essential first-round win for the Lottery, whose officials stated earlier this year that they anticipated to turn a profit of about $31 million in the new online games.
While’s less than 3 percent of all projected Lottery earnings for the fiscal year, it’s a part of a broader formula to keep Lottery proceeds growing within the face of rising demands for the senior citizen solutions it supports.
Assuming the casinos continue to pursue the case, the judge set a schedule for the exchange of relevant proof, professional reports and the filing of pre-trial motions by Aug. 30.