The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Monday reported revenue of $408.1 million from all forms of gaming regulated by the board.
That represents a 3.8% decrease from the $423.7 gaming revenue generated in July, but is an increase of over 31% from August 2020 revenue of $310.7 million.
PGCB Communications Director Douglas Harbach said via email he couldn’t speculate why revenue dipped from July to August.
When asked about sports betting – the total handle was $348.5 million in August, compared to $304.4 in July and $420.2 million in June — Harbach said he expected “an uptick on handle for sports wagering in September given the start of the NFL season. How that affects revenue in that sector, given the volatility of sports wagering, cannot be determined.”
Parx Casino in Philadelphia led all Pennsylvania casinos in August with $59.2 million in revenue, a 0.57% increase from July 2020’s total of $ 58,8 million. Hollywood Casino at Penn National in Grantville had revenue of $49.8 million in August, a year over year increase of 74.3%, and Rivers Casino Philadelphia generated $48.6 million, a jump of 22.8% from August 2020.
Slot revenue at all casinos in August was $209.8, million, a year over year increase of $25.6 from $166.9 million generated during the same period in 2020. Wild Creek Bethlehem generated $24.8 million, and Rivers Casino slots were responsible for $22.4 million.
Revenue from igaming in Pennsylvania reached $86.3 million in August, a decrease of 2.7% from the $88.7 million generated in July. Hollywood Casino had $30.4 million in igaming revenue, followed by Rivers Casino Philadelphia with $27.1 million, and $14.0 million at Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia.
Valley Forge Casino Resort’s sportsbook, operated by FanDuel, led in total handle with $137.4 million, But Meadows Meadows Casino & Racetrack in Meadowlands had the highest sports wagering revenue, $6.8 million from a handle of $81.3 million. Valley Forge’s sportsbook had $3.3 million in revenue, and Hollywood Casino revenue from sports betting reached $1.6 million.
In an analyst’s statement, Carlo Santarelli of Deutsche Bank wrote that there were two notable takeaway’s from Pennsylvania’s August report.
“Pennsylvania continues the trend of states with iCasino product which continue to comp negative relative to 2019 on the brick-and-mortar side, as same-store GGR fell 7.0% relative to August of 2019,” Santarelli wrote. “And sports betting handle fell 5% year over year (July +85% year over year), the first negative year over year comparison since sports betting launched in Pennsylvania, and roughly 20 percentage points below the prior growth trough of +25% from April of 2020.”
