There aren’t many states in which you can enjoy online casino gameplay in the US, although Pennsylvania is arguably blazing a trail for others to follow in the contemporary marketplace.
This has certainly been borne out by the most recent numbers, with PA recently generating a record monthly revenue total across both its online and offline casino verticals.
According to bestcasinosites.net, which lists the best PA online casino sites, there are plenty of operators that offer access to casino gambling in Pennsylvania, with this number continuing to grow year-on-year. We’ll explore this further below, while asking what’s next for the PA marketplace.
How has the iGaming market in PA performed of late?
July saw the local market generate record-breaking numbers, with Pennsylvania casinos banking cumulative revenues of $423.6 million during this four-week period.
This represents the highest monthly total generated to date, beating the previous record of $388.8 million by $35 million overall. Interestingly, the previous record had been set in June, so PA casinos are clearly thriving and continuing to increase their turnovers as 2021 progresses.
July’s figures also highlighted impressive year-on-year growth, with the same period in 2020 seeing PA casino operators bank just $283 million.
Of course, this had a great deal to do with the coronavirus pandemic and the temporary closures and restrictions that were put in place, with this particularly affecting the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh.
This time around, this establishment saw its revenues total $34.1 million, with slot machines contributing $25.3 million of this total haul. A further $7.6 million was generated by table games, while the grand amount of $17.9 million was wagered on sports betting in July.
This made Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh the second-best performing establishment in PA, just behind Parx Casino in Bucks County. This delivered the highest revenue in total, bringing in about $64 million during the four-week reporting period.
Next up was the Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Washington, with revenues totalling $20.6 million in July.
The Meadows resort was also one of the most lucrative in terms of its sports betting handle, generating $67.2 million in sports bets placed during the month of July alone.
There’s an interesting takeaway here, as while the doors to brick-and-mortar establishments were once again open this year, there clearly wasn’t a substantial decline in the value of online wagers.
This is borne out by the total revenues banked by PA casinos, while it also suggests that monthly turnover will continue to increase across both verticals for the foreseeable future.
The figures also show that slot machines remained the top earners for PA casinos in July, accounting for a whopping $222.8 million of the gaming sector’s overall revenue.
Of this number, online slots accounted for $63.2 million, making it the single largest driver of iGaming revenue too. This is part of a wider trend within the global marketplace, with online slots also accounting for more than two-thirds of the total iGaming GGY in the UK.
Elsewhere, online poker and table games generated $2.59 million and $22.8 million respectively, while as much as $3.75 million came directly from video gaming terminals.
What does this mean for the PA marketplace?
These figures are striking, with the delivery of two record-breaking months in June and July highlighting the incredible growth of casino gambling both on and offline in Pennsylvania.
Even more impressively, offline casino gambling appears to be thriving in Pennsylvania, despite the rising prevalence of iGaming and remote sports betting through dedicated platforms such as DraftKings and FanDuel.
This has been borne out by the performance of brick-and-mortar establishments in the wake of the coronavirus restrictions being eased throughout PA, with customers flooding back to land-based casinos just as soon as their doors were reopened to the public.
Despite this, we haven’t seen a sizable decline in the popularity or viability of iGaming verticals, with online casino gambling in PA having become increasingly popular throughout the pandemic and its associated lockdown measures.
Increasingly, it appears that many gamblers may now be adopting a hybrid approach to gameplay, as they look to combine on and offline verticals to create an optimised and convenient gambling experience.
This will serve Pennsylvania well, particularly as the location boasts a thriving offline casino sector and a burgeoning online marketplace.
Over time, of course, we’d expect that online casinos to grow at a much quicker and more sustainable pace than offline alternatives, while interstate iGaming may also become viable if the 2011 interpretation of The Wire Act remains in place.
