Latest Revenue Numbers See Pennsylvania Gaming Revenue Break the $500 Million Barrier

A total of $500,783 was bet on online gaming, retail slots and table games, sports betting and all fantasy sports events and video gaming terminals in the Keystone State. As a result, the PGCB (Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board) announced that the state brought in over $207 million in tax revenue.

When it comes to PA online casinos, they brought in $174.3 million of the total pie (an increase of over 30% on the same month in 2023), with retail slots remaining the big earner, racking up $204.3 million in revenue. That actually represents a slight dip on July 2023, and land-based table action brought in $79.4m, a near 5% drop year-on-year.

The breakdown of online casino revenue sees $125.4 million coming from online slots, with table games up by a whopping 31.7%. Online poker, on the other hand, fell by 13%, which is a worrying trend for that section of the igaming industry, which is all the more eye-catching when you consider all other areas of that market are very healthy.

Given how sports-obsessed Pennsylvania residents are, it’s no surprise that sports betting is proving fruitful. The handle placed in July 2024 rose to $414.7m, covering both online and physical brick-and-mortar markets, which is up more than 20% on the same month in 2023, and revenue reached a very healthy $52.7m.

FanDuel is the big market leader in the Pennsylvania sports betting market, bringing in $17.9 million, with DraftKings in second spot with $10.5 million. In third place, some way behind, is BetMGM, with $1.9 million in revenue for the month.

There are ongoing efforts to reduce the tax burden paid by the 12 casinos in the state, with the 54% they fork out on slots deemed by their legal team, at least, as unconstitutional. Part of their argument relates to the sheer number of unlicensed slot-type games that operate in Pennsylvania.

This is voiced in the lawsuit, which included the following.’

“There is no basis for requiring licensed entities to pay about half of their slot machine revenue to the commonwealth while allowing unlicensed entities to pay no tax on such revenue,”

It’s worth noting that sports betting activities in the state bring in a lesser tax rate, albeit a still not inconsequential 34%, which generated $13.9 million in tax revenue in July 2024 alone. It seems the authorities need to delicately balance the process of bringing in funds from these pastimes, both as a means of boosting their coffers and appeasing those who may be against these activities on moral or other grounds, with a level of competitiveness that does not drive away the main players, who could instead seek to double-down in other less aggressively taxed territories (albeit those that have passed the relevant legislation to do so.