Jackpot: Pa’s casino revenue hit an all-time high in March

By John L. Micek – Capital-Star

HARRISBURG, PA – Pennsylvania’s gambling revenues hit an all-time monthly high in March, with the industry raking in $462.7 million, state gaming regulators said this week.

The haul shatters the previous, single-month record of $432.4 million which was hit in November 2021, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said in a statement.

Hollywood Casino at Penn National in Dauphin County led the industry statewide, taking in a whopping $63.7 million last month, an increase of 11.44 percent, over its March 2021 tally of $57.1 million, state data showed.

Two sectors, table games and online casino-gaming, helped drive the increase in revenues in March, state regulators said in their statement. Revenues for the former exceeded $90 million for the first time ever last month, while online gaming revenues soared past $110 million for the first time in March, regulators said.

In all, the industry took in nearly $94.3 million from table games last month, a 32.1 percent increase from March 2021, when revenues were $71.3 million, according to state data. The previous monthly high was $89 million, which the industry hit in October 2021.

Online gambling, meanwhile, generated $118.1 million in gross revenues last month, compared to nearly $97.7 million in March 2021, an increase of 20.9 percent, gaming regulators said. The previous high was $108 million in January of this year, state data showed.

The casinos’ combined haul generated more than $187 million in tax revenues for the state last month, the data showed.

After slumping in 2020 during the early days of the pandemic, Pennsylvania’s casino operators took in in $4.7 billion in combined revenues in 2021, the Tribune-Review reported in January, citing state data.

That was a $2 billion increase compared to 2020, when the industry, slammed by the pandemic, took in $2.6 billion in combined revenues, the newspaper reported, again citing state data.

The state took in $2.2 billion from slot machines; $924.9 million from table games, $1.1 billion from internet gambling; $340.1 million from sports betting; $29.2 million from fantasy sports contests and $39.8 million from video gaming terminals last year, the newspaper reported. That generated $1.93 billion in tax revenues, officials told the newspaper.

In an interview on Wednesday, Gaming Control Board spokesperson Doug Harbach told the Capital-Star that last month’s bounce in revenue was attributable to two factors: Eager consumers and the continued growth of online gaming and sports betting.

“People, after two years of not being able to frequent casinos, or to go at all, are delighted to do so,” Harbach told the Capital-Star. The addition of three casinos to the state’s already vigorous market also added to the consumer choice, he noted.

And as online gambling and sports betting has become more common, people “have grown more comfortable” with those options, Harbach added, which helped drive the growth in that sector.

The industry took in $30 million in sports betting revenue last month, up from the March 2021 tally of $29.3 million, an increase of nearly 3.6 percent, state data showed.

The bounce in Pennsylvania’s casino revenues reflects broader trends across the industry.

After plunging during the early days of the pandemic in 2020, the industry saw a boom in 2021, as it took in more than $44 billion nationwide, shattering a previous record set in 2019, the Washington Post reported.

Nationwide, the gaming industry took in $30 billion in 2020, a drop of more than 31 percent, and the lowest level since 2003, Forbes reported, citing data compiled by the American Gaming Association.

Harbach told the Capital-Star on Wednesday that the state expects to break $2 billon in tax revenues in 2022, based on current trends.