Mohegan Sun Pocono Sportsbook Review
The Mohegan Sun Pocono, usually just called “The Poconos” by its many fans, is one of the most embedded, popular gambling facilities in Pennsylvania. Located in the northeast part of the state, the Poconos is owned and operated by the Mohegan Sun casino chain, which should reflect strongly in the Mohegan Sun Pocono sportsbook review whenever the venue’s sports betting lounge officially opens for business.
With a major harness racing track, over 2300 slot machines, and a variety of popular table games like poker, blackjack, and roulette, the Mohegan Sun Pocono is an ideal vacation spot. The popular destination features a luxury hotel with spa, salon, and indoor pool for its million-plus annual visitors. The Mohegan Sun Pocono has just about every resort-style amusement you could ask for.
If you want to wager at the Mohegan Sun Pocono sportsbook, you should start making plans to visit the area ASAP, as sports betting – legalized in the state via Act 42 in 2017 – is primed to kick off any day now. In fact, sports betting at the Poconos is likely to launch sometime within the next few months before the start of the 2019 Super Bowl, which is when US sportsbooks typically make the most money. PA sportsbooks in general should make a killing, given that the state is home to both the Pittsburgh Steelers and the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
Unfortunately, the Mohegan Sun Pocono sportsbook is not yet open for business, but it should be in the near future. One of the main reasons why the Poconos hasn’t offered sports betting sooner has to do with the way PA state law is structured regarding the activity.
For starters, any PA racetrack or casino that wishes to open a Pennsylvania sportsbook must pay the Pennsylvania government a one-time fee of $10 million. Bear in mind, for a sportsbook, $10 million could represent an entire year or two of actual profits, which makes the buy-in in Pennsylvania difficult for smaller outfits to stomach. Additionally, sportsbooks in PA must pay taxes on their revenues at a rate of 36%, the highest of any such scheme in the entire world. Put these two roadblocks together, and it’s no surprise that sports betting – though completely legal in the state since PASPA was overturned in May 2018 – hasn’t yet been embraced by local operators in the state.
All that said, because it’s a Mohegan Sun property, the Pocono sportsbook should actually be better equipped to meet the state’s exorbitant rates, which means that the Mohegan Sun Pocono could be one of the premier destinations in eastern Pennsylvania to offer sports betting. That exclusivity could go a long way towards justifying the mandatory expenditures that PA is requiring of those entering the sports betting business.
Once sports betting goes live in PA, the Mohegan Sun Pocono sportsbook will have full-service betting menus for all its sports betting clientele. Coupled with live betting options, patrons of the Poconos will be able to wager on literally tens of thousands of lines every single day of the year, with all the major wager types represented. From NFL odds, MLB runlines, NBA spreads, NCAA bets, and NHL totals to all kinds of props and futures on international action (soccer, rugby, boxing, tennis, etc.), the sports betting menu at the Mohegan Sun Pocono will be as robust as the very best established books in the world.
Of course, many sports bettors in Pennsylvania aren’t interested in waiting for the Mohegan Sun sportsbook to open before placing their bets. For them, there’s great news: By using a legal offshore sportsbook, nobody has to wait to place their bets in Pennsylvania. Sites like Bovada, SportsBetting, BetOnline, 5Dimes, and other top overseas books have been accepting PA resident members for over 20 years, and they’ve always got fair lines, competitive odds, and guaranteed payouts.
Even if you’re content to wait for the Poconos to launch their own sportsbook, these offshore books are definitely worth checking out, as they’ll let you shop around for the best values on every wager you’ll ever want to make, and they’re always 100% legal to use.
Online betting – particularly mobile online betting – is a big deal, and sportsbooks everywhere have been embracing it for several years now. Because the convenience of online sports betting is in such high demand, you will definitely be able to wager at the Mohegan Sun sportsbook using your mobile device just as soon as the facility opens up its primary online sports betting portal. The operator has already been approved for online poker & casinos, so it should only be a matter of time before a sports betting license is requested.
Once that happens, folks should be able to not only bet on sports at the Poconos no matter where in the complex they happen to be, they’ll also be able to wager at the Mohegan Sun sportsbook from anywhere in Pennsylvania. Better yet, online sports bettors will get the exact same access to all of the Mohegan Sun Pocono sportsbook odds they’d get on-site.
As for a mobile sports betting app for the Mohegan Sun sportsbook, that could take a bit longer to roll out, and such a product likely won’t be available to download to your iPhone, Android device, or iPad until sometime in 2019. Of course, you won’t actually need a dedicated app to place online wagers at the Mohegan Sun, as any modern smartphone or tablet should be able to quickly and efficiently access the Poconos sportsbook and allow you to place your wagers in a timely manner.
Right now, it is unclear whether or not the forthcoming Mohegan Sun Pocono sportsbook will offer proxy betting to PA residents and out-of-staters. Because proxy betting is generally interpreted as illegal due to federal laws like the Wire Act and other state laws, it is more likely than not that the Mohegan Sun will pass on allowing the activity.
After all, placing bets via a local third-party makes it possible to wager at the Poconos even when you’re out of state, which is something that even mobile online sports betting won’t let you do, since those solutions will be geo-fenced in accordance with the Wire Act. As we want this to be the best possible Mohegan Sun Pocono sportsbook review, we advise patrons to use online sports betting sites rather than risking the trouble of a proxy.
