PA iGaming Surges 26% as State Posts $582 Million in Revenue

Pennsylvania’s mammoth gaming empire put up its second-best month ever with a combined haul of $582 million in August. A commanding 14% gain over last August. But unlike New Jersey, which saw its nine Atlantic City casinos producing revenue that they haven’t seen in more than a decade, the seventeen Keystone State casinos were flat.

While retail slot revenue only grew 2.6% it was still an impressive $216 million last month, and retail tables managed just a 1% gain, but still posted slightly more than $81 million in revenue.

Parx Casino came out on top in the slots department, posting $33 million. Wind Creek Bethlehem was not far back with $284 million, and Pittsburgh managed to get a casino in the top three, with Rivers Casino pulling in $22 million.

Table games are always a bit of a different story. While Parx is number two here, as they are the largest casino in the state and sit about halfway between Trenton and Philadelphia, they are always eclipsed by the table games revenue from Wind Creek Bethlehem, though they made a valiant try in August up 16% to $18 million, Wind Creek still easily carried the day with a 2% gain to almost $23 million.

It’s beyond highly unusual for a casino the size of Wind Creed to post table games revenue that is almost always on par with their slot revenue, but they have done it consistently for years now. Two Philadelphia casinos rounded out the top four, Live! turned in $7.5 million in receipts, while Rivers was good for another $7 million.

Sport betting handle, or total amount wagered, grew to $515 million in bets, up 6% YOY. But what exploded was the casinos’ hold, which was up an eye-popping 63% to $49 million from just $30 million last year.

More than half of Pennsylvania casinos didn’t even see one million in revenue last month, even with those numbers, however, as Valley Forge and its FanDuel partnership posted $18 million of that total, and Hollywood Casino at the Meadows posted another $12 million, for a combined 60% of the state’s total sportsbook revenue.

Those same numbers are more or less reflected in the real star of the August revenue report: iGaming.  Up a very impressive 26% year over year, the total iGaming number from slots, tables and poker came in at $231 million. $180 million from online slots, $49 million from table games and a respectable $2.5 million in iPoker.

Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course and its partner DraftKings managed to grab almost $85 million of that, however, and FanDuel and Valley Forge took home another $67 million, leaving Rivers Casino Philadelphia with $36 million. Of the remaining nine casinos with iGaming skin, only Harrah’s and their Be MGM partner managed to break over the ten million mark with $11.8 million; six operators didn’t even make the $4 million mark.

Pennsylvania’s numbers indicate strength but also hint at a growing imbalance between top-tier operators and those further down the ladder. The state's $582 million trails only New Jersey nationally, but the bulk of the revenue and the growth comes from just a handful of operators consolidating power in iGaming and Sportsbooks in Pennsylvania.