The recent growth of mobile gaming has been spectacular, especially in the PA and New Jersey states. The newest trend is restaurants hosting sportsbooks. It is no longer a surprise to find a casino located inside a restaurant at a time when nearly every state in the US has legalized wagering.
Parx has a sportsbook inside a restaurant
Like always, Parx Casino is ahead of the game. It is one of the pioneers to open a sportsbook facility inside a restaurant. The casino teamed up with Chickie’s & Pete’s to launch its first sportsbook inside a restaurant.
According to Parx Casino, it is an achievement of its kind to have the first off-track and sports betting facility found inside a restaurant in PA. Parx Casino also owns a Pennsylvania online sportsbook where gamblers can wager wherever they are located at any time of the day or night.
The new trend
The spread of casinos across the US has recently registered the highest records of new casinos in the last decade. Until 2010, most states in the US hadn’t legalized betting. The few states that had legalized it had strict rules restricting the casinos within certain cities or areas.
As more states continually legalized betting, the restrictive rules were lifted. This gave casinos freedom to open more facilities across multiple cities while strictly observing the governing rules.
Then came online betting, which gave the gambling industry a big boom. Today, gambling in the US is the norm, with many American spending their free time placing bets. After the long months of lockdowns, the most anticipated time for restaurants to open again finally came.
The restaurant managers are willing to introduce new products that will improve customer experience. One of the products is creating spaces for sportsbooks where customers can enjoy their meals and wager.
By February, major casinos such as Parx had launched a sportsbook inside a restaurant. Shortly after, other major casinos took the Parx Casino trend and began to apply for regulatory approvals.
Watching games in the dining area
Restaurants receive different kinds of customers. They range from children in the company of adults to young men and women in their twenties, thirties, and beyond. The sportsbook owners use different types of apps like crypto apps to stream wagering odds into the bars. The apps help identify the customers who are wagering in the restaurants.
Customers in the restaurants can wager on off-track bets on horse racing or college sports. Bettors wager while seated in the dining area and don’t need to sit in the sportsbook facility. They are fitted with betting kiosks, TVs, odds boards, and teller windows. The purpose is to allow bettors to place live bets in person.
Bettors below 21 years old
The US laws don’t allow individuals under 21 years to bet. Since children access the restaurants, there was concern they might engage in betting. However, security in the sportsbooks facilities is tight, allowing only bettors who are 21 years old and above. The sportsbooks in restaurants are a new trend which has created employment opportunities for many people.
