With a growing betting industry across the States, it’s no surprise to see that Pennsylvania’s gambling revenue is on the rise: it’s one of the few states to allow online casinos, for a start. Each year it’s been going up, driven by the growth of both sports betting and casino sites. There are many established casinos here, but it’s some of the newest online casinos in PA that are helping to increase revenue for the state most of all.
The inclusion of sites such as PariPlay to the Pennsylvania gambling market also further indicates the success here. Let’s take a look at exactly what’s happening.
Pennsylvania’s monthly gambling revenue
In September 2023, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) announced that revenue from all forms of gambling was on the rise. Impressively, there was a total revenue of $476.25 million for that month. This was generated across all gambling types and included daily fantasy sports. To put this in a better perspective, this is an increase of 6.2% when compared to September 2022 and the revenue generated from gambling a year ago.
Similarly, August 2023 produced a total revenue of $457.1, up 7.5% from the previous year. July 2023 did even better, with a total revenue of $467 million, which was more than the $429.1 million from July 2022. However, June saw the biggest percentage increase in the last few months with a total revenue of $440.5 million, up 13% on the revenue made in June 2022. Looking back at earlier months, the trend is exactly the same.
Gambling that brings the most revenue
Without a doubt, slot games are still the big earners here. Impressively, they raise about half of the revenue garnered each month, while table games make up roughly a quarter of that final total. However, there is a difference between retail and online slots. Retail is the big winner — for instance, this August retail slots earned $203.1 million, an increase of 0.95% from last year. Online slots earned $105.2 million that month, but this was an enormous jump of 39% from last year.
These trends are similar across other casino games, with retail options still bringing in more than their online counterparts. This could change in the future though.
Sports betting shows the reverse, with more revenue coming from online betting. September’s figures showed a 12.6% increase in overall handle, with $726.25 million wagered. This provided taxable revenue of $36.6 million, a 27% drop compared to September 2022. Most of this comes from online betting, with just $4.5 million in sports betting revenue coming from retail sportsbooks or racetracks.
Casino and betting site revenue — the big earners
Leading here is Hollywood Casino with a revenue of $75.2 million in August (and $77 in September). August’s revenue was a whopping rise from July when it earned $54.4 million. It’s also a massive jump of 23.41% compared to last year’s August revenue.
Valley Forge Casino Resort regained second place in September with revenue of $66 million, up 24.5% on last year. Parx Casino, which overtook Valley Forge in the August results, dropped back to third in September. It’s still a long way from catching Hollywood Casino as it made $55.8 million in September, which is just 0.29% up from last year. Rivers Casino is also slowly closing that gap to third place with revenue of $47.4 million this September.
