Pennsylvania Gaming Revenue Continues To Grow, Online Play Accounts For 41.6% Of May Total

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board reported this week May revenue numbers for the state’s robust gambling industry, and they tell the same story told in most other recent months: Revenue continues to grow in nearly all verticals, but is growing fastest in online casino.

All licensed operators combined for a few dollars shy of $521 million in revenue in May, a year-over-year increase of 8.68%.

Of that $521 million, $216.9 million came from online gambling — iCasino, online sports betting, iPoker, and daily fantasy. That online figure represents 41.6% of Pennsylvania operators’ total haul, and it also equates to a 19% increase in online gambling revenue over May 2023.

The brick-and-mortar sector is growing, but at a relatively modest pace, with retail slots revenue up 1.55% and retail table games revenue rising 2.54% across Pennsylvania’s 17 casinos. Mobile gaming is expanding at a much faster rate, clearly. (The door is thus left open for hardliners on either side of the “cannibalism” debate to decide how to spin this.)

A happy taxman

Taxes vary depending on vertical, but with numbers as high as 54% on both brick-and-mortar slots revenue and online slots revenue, the Keystone State is among the more aggressive gaming taxation states, and as such produced $216.3 million in tax revenue in May.

Exact rankings of the online casinos in the state can be difficult to calculate because some land-based operators are partnered with multiple skins. Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course led the way in May with $65.1 million in iGaming revenue, and the majority of that likely came via DraftKings Casino, but other brands account for some percentage of it. Valley Forge Casino Resort — which is partnered with FanDuel — placed next with $44.4 million, followed Rivers Casino Philadelphia with $31.2 million.

Online slots accounted for $126.9 million in revenue, and iTables produced $44.9 million (taxed much lower than iSlots at 16%).

Online poker is one of the few gambling verticals that decreased in revenue year-over-year, down 9.1% from $2.5 million in May 2023 to $2.27 million last month. Fantasy contests revenue also dipped, by 5.2%, from $1.21 million to $1.15 million.

The statewide May iCasino revenue of $174.1 million was the third-highest in Pennsylvania history — with the two months that top it both coming this year. The record is $191.1 million set in March, followed by February’s $184.9 million.

May marked the fourth straight month with online casino revenue above $170 million — a benchmark never topped prior to 2024.

Sports wagering handle for the month was $591.9 million, up 19.4% year-over-year, and produced taxable revenue of $44.2 million — translating to a 7.46% hold rate for the house.