Pennsylvania Surpasses $200M In Online Casino Revenue For First Time, Retail Numbers Grow Too

As in neighboring New Jersey and not-so-neighboring Michigan, Pennsylvania’s regulated gaming industry recorded record revenue from online casino play in November — despite it being only a 30-day month, but perhaps helped by the Thanksgiving long weekend and the downtime it provided.

The previous record for iCasino revenue in Pennsylvania was $191.1 million, set in March. In November, as the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board reported this week, the tally broke $200 million for the first time, coming in just a few bucks shy of $200.5 million.

Online slots accounted for $148.7 million of that, online table games contributed $49.6 million, and peer-to-peer iPoker chugged along at a little under $2.3 million.

The total November iCasino haul was up 26.9% year-over-year, and represented a 6% increase over the 31-day month that preceded it.

Across all forms of regulated gaming — including online, brick-and-mortar, sports betting, fantasy, and video gaming terminals (VGTs) — the Keystone State’s operators enjoyed a record $562.4 million in revenue, up 26.1% year-over-year.

From that, Pennsylvania collected a robust $232.8 million in taxes.

Inside the revenue rankings

The latest piece of evidence in the debate over whether online casino cannibalizes retail casino is pointing in the direction of, “no, not really.” Brick-and-mortar casino gaming revenue rose from $269.2 million in November 2023 to $279.1 million last month, an increase of 3.7% year-over-year. The growth is far less steep than iCasino revenue, but the retail pie is nonetheless expanding.

B&M slot revenue went up 6.2% year-over-year, while table games winnings for the house dipped 2.5%. Parx Casino was tops in the state in slot machine revenue with $31.1 million in November, ahead of second-place Wind Creek Bethlehem’s $23.9 million, but they flipped places in table games, where Wind Creek was No. 1 ($20.6 million) and Parx finished No. 2 (just under $16 million).

On the online casino side, Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course led the way with $74.4 million in total revenue, though that No. 1 ranking is deceiving because there are multiple iCasino brands under that umbrella, including DraftKings Casino and BetMGM Casino. Valley Forge Casino Resort, the land-based partner of FanDuel Casino, came in second with $54.1 million in revenue.

Rivers Casino Philadelphia finished third with $34.7 million, and the rest of the pack was far behind, with no other operator exceeding $10 million. Among those, Golden Nugget and Bally’s are notable for their increases year-over-year; the former was up 123% vs. November ’23, and the latter was up 80.5%.

Good sports

Pennsylvania has never quite had a $1 billion sports betting handle month like New Jersey and New York routinely do, but it came closer than ever in November with a state-record $935.5 million, just barely beating the previous high of $934.1 million set the previous November.

With both the Eagles and Steelers doing well and getting their fans excited — not to mention a Penn State football team that’s in the national title picture — it should be no surprise that wagering handle was booming.

Valley Forge Casino Report (partnered with FanDuel Sportsbook) was a distant No. 1 in both handle ($373.6 million) and revenue ($36.4 million), followed in both categories by Hollywood Casino at the Meadows (DraftKings Sportsbook) with $246.2 million handle and $21.1 million revenue.

Two of the smaller casinos that don’t have online partners and only operate retail sportsbooks actually lost money for the month. Mount Airy Casino Resort finished $3,221 in the red, while bettors beat Parx Shippensburg for $5,928.

Overall, the state’s sports betting operators managed an 8.2% hold against bettors — far better than the 3.2% hold in October.