Pennsylvania Online Casino Revenue Sees Drop in Early Q1 Results

2020 was a challenging year for the gambling industry due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Gambling revenue in Pennsylvania dropped by 20%. The PA gambling industry has been trying to resurface after the 2020 dip.

January

The Pennsylvania online gambling market began 2021 on the right footing with a new monthly record of $80.4 million in revenue recorded in January. That marked seven consecutive months of high revenue records.

The monthly revenue witnessed in January was an 11% increase from the $71.6 million recorded in December 2020. The numbers are even crazier when compared to January 2020, when the PA online gambling industry generated under $14 million in revenue.

The collective total revenue collected from all forms of gambling in PA, including fantasy contests, witnessed a 2.73% increase in January, hitting $311.1 million. Online slots were the major contributor to the PA gambling revenue with $51million. That was a 609% upsurge compared to January 2020. Online table games followed with $26.7 million in revenue, a 479% increase. Online poker was third with $2.7 million, a 26.35% increase.

Revenue wise, the top performer in January was Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood Casino which managed to collect $44.6 million in revenue. Valley Forge Casino bagged $38 million, and Rush Street Interactive followed closely with about $36.9 million collected in January.

February

Following the strong start of the PA iGaming industry, even the best Pennsylvania online casinos, as listed at online-casinos.com, witnessed a slight drop in revenue in the month of February. The drop was entirely due to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic.

According to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, gambling revenue collected across the state in the month of February amounted to $301.9 million, which was a $2.36 million (1%) decreased compared to February 2020.

Revenue from Online Table games and slots dropped by 26% and 27%, respectively. That translates to $20 million less in table game revenues and $53.8 million less in online slots revenue when compared to February 2020.

Every online casino in the state witnessed a drop in slots revenues in February. Only one casino in the entire state, Mount Airy Casino Resort, recorded an increase in online table games revenue by $286,610 in comparison to last year.

Meadows Racetrack and Casino saw a $5.9 million decrease in slots revenue and a $1.1 million dip in table game revenue. Rivers Casino saw a greater impact of $10.1 million in lost revenue for slots and $2.9 million losses in table games revenue. Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin also witnessed a decline, recording $65,570 less in-table game revenues and $1.3 million less in slots revenue.

Most of the impacts felt by land-based casinos were offset by the covid-19 prevention measure of social distancing, leading to low casino traffic. This has, however, resulted in growing popularity in iGaming, sports betting, and video gaming terminals.

March

iGaming poker revenue in PA dropped by 23% to $2.4 million in March. Of the five months where year-over-year comparisons were possible, March was the first to witness a decline. However, the dip does not come as a surprise. It’s now lapping one month of an increase in interest in online gambling following the impacts of covid-19 infections reported in Pennsylvania. In March 2020, online poker revenues surged by over 70% to $3.1 million.

Other verticals did not have an issue going up against the rough annual comparatives. As a matter of fact, online casino revenue exploded in March to $95.3 million – double the revenue collected in March 2020. Online slot machines recorded $66million in revenue, while online table games saw a growth of $20 million from $8.8 million in March last year to $28.8 million this year.

Online sports betting revenue is also showing a strong return. As of March, it was at $37.7 million, up by $7.5 million from February and about five-fold compared to March 2020. Online bookmakers contributed 92% of the total revenue collected from the sportsbook market.

The Revival of Online Gambling Revenue

With most players stuck at home; the popularity of online casinos has surged significantly. Statistics show that online slots revenue increased by $40.9 million, online poker by over $689,700, and online table games revenue surged by $16.6 million in the month of March. Revenues collected from video Big list of game genres gaming terminals increased by $1.17 million compared to last year.

According to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, sports betting revenue grew by $11.6 million compared to last year. Out of the total $16.3 million collected in sports wagering revenue, $13.4 million came from online bets and only $2.9 million was generated in land-based sportsbooks. Rivers Pittsburg and Meadows saw a $57,380 and $2 million increase in sports betting revenue, respectively.

Despite the growth in online iGaming revenue, local casinos in the state witnessed an overall decrease in revenues in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period last year. Rivers Pittsburgh recorded a $13 million drop, Meadows a $5 million decrease in revenues, and Lady Luck Nemacolin a $1.4 million drop.

After being forced to close their doors twice last year in response to covid-19, casinos in the state have been trying to recoup. Collectively, casinos in PA saw a drop of $759 million Fgp Games in 2020 when compared to revenue collected in 2019.

PA Gambling Market Analysis

One key trend in the Pennsylvania iGaming market is that table games are gradually outpacing slots. Revenue collected from table games exceeds that collected from slot machines in both online and land-based casinos. Monthly revenue growth has been favoring table games since July 2020.

January 2021 was not exceptional. Gamblers in PA wagered $1.55 billion at table games and $1.4 billion on slot machines. Table games contributed 34% of the total casino revenue, and their contribution surged 17.9% compared to slots’ 10.3%.

At Rivers Pittsburgh, table game revenue increased by 30.8% in January 2021 while slots grew by 3.7%. Slots are taxed almost triple the rate of taxing other gambling verticals in PA. The high taxes levied on slots revenue is one of the factors underlying this trend.