Gambling revenues get online boost
Online gambling is giving state revenues a much needed shot in the arm following a two and a half month shutdown in the spring and summer associated with the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Figures released Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board show total gaming and fantasy contests revenue for August was $310,717,728, an almost 6 percent increase over the
$293,434,087 generated in the same month last year.
Harrah’s Philadelphia in Chester saw a slight dip of 1.27% in total revenues for August 2020 compared to August 2019, pulling in
$20,421,591 last month versus
$20,683,822 in the prior year. Statewide, in-house slots and table games continue to lag from last year’s figures, according to the PGCB. Retail slots accounted for $206,260,869 in revenues in August 2019, but just
$166,999,047 last month. Retail table games likewise saw more than a $10 million drop, down to $65,119,689 from $76,184,709 last year.
But bolstering those figures were huge gains in “I-Gaming” online revenues, according to the figures released Wednesday.
Online slots in August 2019 came in just over $2.5 million in August 2019, but skyrocketed to more than $39.6 million last month. Online table games likewise increase from less than $1 million last August to more than
$18.2 million.
Sports wagering, which accounted for $6.1 million in August
2019, posted $18,274,075 in revenues last month. Online poker, not available in August 2019, put up another $2.7 million. Revenues from Video Gaming Terminals, or VGTs, also showed gains in yearover-year figures, accounting for just $56,221 last August, but
$2,247,898 last month. Rounding out the statewide totals was fantasy contests revenue, which increased from $1,388,631 in august
2019 to $2,134,494 last month. Harrah’s showed a 12 percent dip in year-over-year slots revenue for August, taking in $13,739,548, compared to $15,615,012 in August 2019. Table games, however, were up at the Chester facility more than 19 percent, from
$4,817,513 in August 2019 to
$5,737,446 in August 2020.
Still, those figures showed a significant dip from July. Slots in July earned $217,357,533, but last month brought it just
$185,896,644. Table games also dropped off, though less significantly, from $6,739,195 in July to
$5,737,446 in August.
The figures are much improved from March, however, when closures caused gambling revenues statewide to plummet approximately 51 percent compared to March 2019.
The PGCB reported in April that total statewide revenue for all casinos was $153.4 million for March 2020, compared to $316.2 million for the same month last year.
Harrah’s saw total revenues that month of just $8,849,429 compared to $25,383,035 in March 2019, a decrease of 65.1%. Slots revenues at the Chester casino were $6,706,367 for March
2020 compared to $19,250,731 in March 2019, a slip of 65.1%, and table games brought in a little more than $2 million, a decrease of 64.3% from last March’s revenues of $5,805,552.
Casinos remained closed until June, when Harrah’s saw a slight build-back of $49,547,795 in slot revenues and just $861,155 in table games revenues.
The fiscal year ending in July showed the costs: $42,420,185 in total table games revenues and $1,625,097,988 for slots at the Chester facility. For context, Harrah’s earned $2,310,429,459 in slots revenues and $58,939,571 from table games in FY 2018/19.