Bally signs freeplay poker deal with Mohegan Sun
Connecticut and Pennsylvania casinos become latest to commit to use Bally's online gaming platform.
Bally Technologies has confirmed a deal which will see it offer its online gaming platform to Mohegan Sun Casinos, which has bricks and mortar venues in Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
Mohegan Sun’s Connecticut venue in Uncasville previously hosted events in the PokerStars-sponsored North American Poker Tour (NAPT), however this agreement enables the casinos to host freeplay online poker sites and follows a six-month review period initiated by the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority-owned operator.
It will be permitted to go live with software from any of Bally Interactive’s online poker partners, which currently include Ongame and Winamax, or alternatively Bally would permit the integration of software from other compliant egaming companies upon Mohegan Sun’s request.
The casino is the third to strike an online poker partnership with Bally this year, after fellow Nevada-licensee American Casino and Entertainment Properties (ACEP) inked a deal last month. ACEP’s agreement will see a freeplay poker site launch by the end of the year, with a real-money product to follow once Bally’s systems have been approved by an independent testing laboratory. In June, Nevada online poker licence applicant Golden Nugget was the first to go live with a freeplay poker site using Bally’s platform, which the software provider acquired from Chiligaming in February.
Bally Technologies CEO Richard Haddrill said of today’s announcement: “We are proud of our long-term strategic partnership with Mohegan Sun. This partnership will demonstrate the advantages of having an open iGaming platform, which allows for best-in-class content.”
Egaming legislation is yet to be introduced in either Connecticut or Pennsylvania, meaning that the deal will remain a freeplay one or the foreseeable future. In July, when the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs revealed the first draft of a federal tribal gaming bill, Bruce ‘Two Dogs’ Bozsum, chairman of the Mohegan Tribe of Uncasville in Connecticut, said his tribe was formulating strict regulations for online gaming.
Bally, along with IGT, was the first to receive service provider and manufacturer online poker licences in Nevada back in June.