June Gaming Revenue in PA Sizzles, But So Do the Taxes

Pennsylvania gaming revenue last month was hotter than a cheesesteak fresh off the griddle at Geno’s, up a whopping 15% from June of 2024. While the total haul of $545 million was impressive, it fell considerably short of the record $601 million that gaming garnered in May.

The standout number in the already solid revenue report? Online gaming, which surged 32.3% year over year. A number that is bound to draw attention, though potentially not all of it positive, as retail brick-and-mortar slot and table revenue remained flat.

Despite many pointing to online operators as the root of the trouble for these land-based casinos, it doesn’t really square up with other jurisdictions, such as next-door New Jersey, where the brick-and-mortar establishments have easily eclipsed their online counterparts through the spring and into the summer.

Both online slots and table games contributed to this remarkable growth, although online slots performed slightly better, increasing 36% to $162 million in revenue. Tables weren’t exactly tepid, however, with more than $47 million in take, a 22% increase.

That puts total iGaming revenue north of $212 million, when you factor in another $2.7 million from online poker. This is down slightly from May, when a total of $233 million was wagered at PA online casinos.

Although May had an extra calendar day, it’s hard to square a 10% decrease from last month with just 24 hours of additional play. It’s likely that better weather and people on vacation or traveling are what caused the slight decline in online play month over month.

Swing and a Long Drive… Outta Here!

From a purely percentage standpoint, the real home run was sports betting, which saw a 71% wallop year over year to $51 million, a number made even more impressive when you realize the handle, or the total amount wagered on sports in June, only increased by 4% to $483 million, meaning the sports books had a massive increase in hold. 

It’s probably worth mentioning that $49 million of that revenue came from online sports betting, with another $2 million chipped in by brick-and-mortar sportsbooks. FanDuel Sportsbook once again came out on top with $28 million, while DraftKings Sportsbook was a distant second at $18 million. Fanatics managed to squeeze into third with $5.4 million. 

Bricks

The brick-and-mortar crowd didn’t have quite as much to celebrate, as revenue, as previously mentioned, was basically flat from the previous June. Slots declined slightly less than 1%, to $199 million from $201 million, while table games witnessed a 1.5% bump from $76 million to $77 million.

Parx Casino in Bucks County narrowly edged out Wind Creek Bethlehem this month, posting a combined slot and table games total of just over $46 million, compared to $45 million from its perennial rival.

One number to always keep an eye on is the total number of slot machines, and this month it continued its decline to a total of 24,349, down approximately 400 machines over the past 12 months. 

The Tax Man Cometh

Pennsylvania has some of the highest gaming taxes in the nation, with both online slots and those in land-based casinos paying 54% of revenue to the state. 

And while taxes on table games are a slightly more forgiving 16%, they are still considerably higher than in other legal online gaming states, and an additional 36% is taken for sports betting on top of yearly licensing fees.

That all adds up to a huge tax bill every month for the Keystone State’s casino operators, whether online or land-based, and in June, that total was an eye-watering $230 million. 

Conclusion

The June numbers out of Pennsylvania show a gambling industry firing on all cylinders. The sports books dramatically increased their hold, the online verticals drastically grew their business year over year, and the brick-and-mortar locations held steady in what has become an increasingly competitive landscape. 

All eyes now turn to July as both the temperature and the competition continue to heat up. Will online gaming be able to continue its 20% and 30% year-over-year growth without eventually cannibalizing the brick-and-mortar casinos? Can sportsbooks continue to steer away from the player-friendly results that dominated most of last year’s NFL season? Stay tuned.