Pennsylvania’s January Casino Results Improve, Still Weaker

Pennsylvania continues to see a decline in its casino revenue that began in November last year and has been ever so subtly showing up on monthly results ever since. According to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, casinos managed to raise $393.1 million in revenues in January. Compared to November, when the industry reached its last peak, this constitutes a $39.3 million decrease.

The results are also a $13.1 million decline from December. However, the gap has been slowly closing as casinos have been allowed to scale up operations, and COVID-19 restrictions gradually lifted. Nevertheless, results were already 26% higher year-over-year when the January 2021 revenue was only $311.1 million.

While the land-based sector struggled, revenue from the online gambling sector increased. In January, the monthly iGaming revenue reached $108.3 million, up by $5.4 million from October 2021, when the last highest revenue handle from iGaming was posted. Tax revenue from the January casino activity was set at $157.5 million, including both gambling and fantasy contests.

Licensees Vying for the Biggest Chunk of Revenue

Pennsylvania has 16 licensed operators that can extend iGaming offers to players, making it one of the busiest states and most competitive at that. Hollywood Casino at Penn National managed to secure the biggest chunk of this prize, claiming over $57.2 million. That was twice as much as the second casino in the queue, with Rivers Casino Pittsburgh raking in $28.5 million.

Hollywood Casino at the Meadows collected $16.7 million. Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin in Fayette County managed to pull in $1.6 million in January. Live! Casino Pittsburgh at Westmoreland Mall generated $8.2 million, with the bulk of the proceedings coming from slot machines which accounted for $6.8 million of the total.

A breakdown into the individual metrics indicates that land-based slot machines were still the biggest drivers of revenue with $168.4 million. Table games on-site at retail casinos brought in another $78.2 million, and online slot machines managed to pull $71.8 million. Another $33 million came from online table games.

Sports Betting Boosted by the NBA and NFL

The PGCB said that online and retail sports gambling generated $32.1 million, which doubled December’s performance when results were only $18.8 million. However, in January, the total betting handle reached $793.7 million, which was the highest the state has clocked so far, incentivized by the Super Bowl. Sportsbooks generated $53.4 million in gross revenue, PGCB data revealed.

Both the NBA and the NFL have helped contribute to strong results for operators in the Keystone State, which have been happy to see most of the action return to normal after prolonged delays.