Pennsylvania Gaming Industry's July Saw Revenue Boosts
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Pennsylvania’s broad gaming industry showed healthy revenue increases in July over both the previous month and prior year, reaching a total of $467 million for all commercial operators.
The July revenue from combined in-person casino gambling, iGaming, sports betting, truck stop VGTs, and fantasy sports contests was up 6% over June and 8.8% from July 2022, according to the monthly report released Thursday by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
At a blended state tax rate of about 41% when the differing rates on various types of legal gambling are combined, the activity brought $192 million to state and local governments in July.
The online casino sector led the gains. The operators collectively claimed $132.9 million from players. While that was down 1.8% from June, it was 34.8% more than in July 2022.
Other taxable revenue included $298.1 million from brick-and-mortar casinos, $32.1 million from sports betting, $3.4 million from truck stop VGTs, and $655,886 from fantasy sports contests.
The combined revenue represented a solid start for Pennsylvania operators in the first month of the 2023-24 fiscal year, after the gaming board reported last month that 2022-23 netted a record $5.51 billion.
What a difference a year makes
July 2022 was uncharacteristically slow for iCasino play by Pennsylvanians — a rare month in which operator revenue dipped below $100 million — but that was not the case this year.
The $132.9 million earned by some 20 different sites last month broke down as $94.9 million from online slots play, $35.4 million from table games, and $2.6 million from iPoker available on four legal sites in Pennsylvania.
The gaming board does not break down the revenue of individual operators, but it listed a leading $54.4 million as the combined earnings of those using PENN Entertainment’s Hollywood Casino at Penn National license. The iCasinos of DraftKings, BetMGM, and PointsBet are all on that license, in addition to PENN’s own Barstool and Hollywood Casino platforms.
The Valley Forge Casino Resort online license used by FanDuel and StarDust Casino showed up second in revenue with $29.2 million. It was followed by the $26.8 million earned by those under the Rivers Casino Philadelphia license, including BetRivers, PlaySugarHouse, and Borgata.
Physically, things aren’t increasing
The monthly data for brick-and-mortar casinos again reflected how overall in-person visitation to Pennsylvania properties is basically flat, even with an increased number of venues year to year.
The 17 casinos now in operation generated $214.7 million from slots play in July, just slightly more than what the 16 casinos in existence a year earlier produced. Their table games revenue last month added up to $83.4 million, about $3 million less than what casinos achieved in July 2022.
The one new venue in the past year is a mini-casino, Parx Shippensburg, which is among the smallest revenue generators with $2.7 million from slots and $52,160 from table games last month.
The biggest gainer year over year was Rivers Philadelphia, with slots revenue of $12.1 million representing a 24% increase, although its table games revenue of $7.2 million was down 5.9%.
Harrah’s Philadelphia did not have a good July, with slots revenue of $9.6 million down 16.6% from 2022 and table games revenue of $2.7 million off 24%.
Parx Casino continued to hold a wide lead over all competitors in slots revenue, though its $33.3 million was 1% less than in July 2022.
Wind Creek Bethlehem, meanwhile, remained the Pennsylvania favorite for table games action, with $23.7 million in revenue that was less than 1% above the prior July’s level.
