Pennsylvania Gaming Revenue Up 6% in July as iSlots Continue to Surge

Pennsylvania’s gaming industry continued to surge despite some headwinds in July, generating $591 million in total gaming revenue, a 6% increase year-over-year (YOY).

As has been increasingly the case, though, both in the Keystone State and other states where iGaming is legal, that growth was far from evenly distributed. Online slots continue to lead the way, maintaining their relentless march higher, yet both online and retail table games revenue declined. Retail slots managed a modest pickup, while sportsbooks posted a surprisingly strong summer month that was driven by higher handle and not just better hold.

All in all, it's a picture of an overall healthy market despite economic and competitive struggles, but one that seems increasingly dependent on just one or two verticals for continued growth.

iSlots Carry the Day Yet Again

Pennsylvania online casinos fell just short of their usual double-digit growth in July, posting $249 million in revenue, up 9.1%. On its face, that is still a very healthy number, but if we dig a little deeper, we see that all of that growth came strictly from online slots.

iSlot by itself was nearly $200 million of that number, up 12.4%. Online table game play declined yet again in July, down 2% to roughly $47.4 million and iPoker also struggled falling 7% to $2.3 million.

This ongoing weakness in online table games play was far from an isolated event, with several year-over-year declines having been posted in the past year, all while online slots continue to accelerate. What makes it even odder is the Pennsylvania tax structure. Online casinos pay a much higher tax rate on revenue from slots than they do from either poker or table games. Yet, instead of seeing these casinos find a way to prioritize tables, which only pay 16% of revenue to the state, to manage their tax bill, online slots, which pay nearly 54% of all revenue, continue to dominate.

iPoker in PA expected a large boost when it joined the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement in April of 2025, as it allowed players to compete with players in other states that were also part of the compact. It did see an initial boost, but this month's numbers show the market falling back to where it was before the implementation of the multi-state agreement.

Retail Slots Struggle To Keep Pace

In the brick-and-mortar slot business, machines generated $213 million in July, good for a 2.5% increase from this time last year. The state also had slightly more machines in play at 24,561 vs. 24,362.

While it’s good for an increase on paper, it's hardly a reason to celebrate given the current inflationary environment. Individual property numbers were much more volatile than usual, with Rivers Pittsburgh down 5.7%, Penn National Race Course dropping 6.3%, and Live! Philly declining 4.8%, yet slightly more remote markets like Presque Isle were up 14% and Hollywood Morgantown was up 13%.

New slot competition from Resorts World in Queens may eventually pressure all of Eastern Pennsylvania, and gas prices over $4 a gallon certainly wouldn’t seem to make long casino trips very attractive, but July’s slot numbers don’t show a clean geographic story that would allow us to point the finger at either just yet.

Wind Creek Sinks Pennsylvania Tables

That geographic uncertainty doesn’t spill over into the table games numbers, however. Those hundreds of new table games opening up in Queens at Resorts World over the past several months continue to wreak havoc in Bethlehem, 100 miles west on I-78. Table games revenue at Wind Creek declined a whopping $6.7 million YOY, from $22.9 million to just $16.2 million.

The entire state was down 5.1% in table games revenue to $72.4 million, but that was a decline of only about $4 million. That means that, excluding Wind Creek, Pennsylvania’s other casinos would actually have seen a 5% increase.

Of course, one month's worth of highly volatile table games numbers isn’t enough to draw long-term conclusions, but certainly the timing here is worth watching, as Wind Creek and other casinos within a few hours' drive of New York are likely to remain under pressure as Resorts World opens yet more tables, adds new slots, and begins a $5 billion expansion plan.

Sportsbooks Find Plenty Of Summer Action

For Pennsylvania sportsbooks, sports betting provided perhaps July’s cleanest positive result. Their handle, or total amount wagered, was up an impressive 23% from last July, and taxable revenues climbed even faster, up nearly 28% to $51.8 million.

Unlike neighboring New Jersey, where this month's numbers were juiced by much higher hold and falling handle, Pennsylvania saw its gains driven almost single-handedly by much higher wagering.

DraftKings and FanDuel remained in a virtual dead heat in terms of handle, but FanDuel managed to post $21 million in revenue on $167 million in handle while DraftKings scraped up $14 million on $166 million at the window.

Pennsylvania’s Growth Story is Changing

On the surface, there was nothing inherently troubling about the $591 million in gaming revenue number, and certainly nothing wrong with the $256 million in taxes that found its way back to Harrisburg. Revenue is growing, and both sportsbooks and iGaming had an excellent July.

But it is still probably worth noting how that is happening. Retail tables are contracting, and retail slots are producing only modest growth. Even online table games are unexpectedly moving backwards, and poker remains under increasing pressure despite MSIGA.

Yet, online slots grew another 12.4%. And hanging over all of this is the still-unresolved issue of gray-market slots. Tens of thousands of them remain scattered across the state after the PA Supreme Court decided that they fall under state gaming law and cannot continue to operate unlicensed.

This means they will eventually be licensed, regulated, and, most importantly, taxed. Yet both the governor and lawmakers seem determined to wait till the last minute to implement new laws that will almost certainly reshape both the retail and online slot market in ways that are hard to know for certain.

For now, Pennsylvania gaming continues to grow. Increasingly, though, it's iSlots doing all the heavy lifting.