Strong gaming market in Pennsylvania supported by record-breaking icasino performance in FY23-24
Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board full-year numbers show that total gaming income for the 12 months to 30 June came to $5.89bn (£4.55bn/€5.41bn), 6.9% more than last year's $5.51bn.
The record-breaking sum for the Keystone state's tax revenue was $2.36 billion. Slot machines contributed $1.34 billion, while table games contributed $157.6 million. A total of $175.2 million came from sports betting, $21.4 million from VGTs, and $2.9 million from fantasy sports.
But it came after a year in which, with the exception of one, every vertical fell from the previous year. The largest portion of the revenue came from land-based casinos, with slots accounting for $2.44 billion, a decrease of 0.6% from the previous year. Video gaming terminals (VGTs) brought in $41.1m, a 2.4% decrease, while table games brought in an additional $958m.
Sports betting provided $486.6m, down 1.1%, to the total for Pennsylvania's online market, while fantasy sports added another $19.3m, down 6.8%.
Unstoppable expansion of online gambling in Pennsylvania
Despite this general downturn, the online casino industry was the only one to show annual increase. With a 27.2% increase to $1.95 billion in revenue from FY22–23, it is now the second largest source of gaming revenue in the state, behind only casino slot machines.
The great bulk of icasino revenue comes from slot machines, just like in land-based casinos. Contributions of $1.39 billion came from online slot machines, $525.4 million from table games, and $28.9 million from poker rake and fees. The state received tax revenue of $841.7 million as a result of this.
With $751.2m in revenue for FY23-24, the Hollywood Casino at Penn National (which sublicenses DraftKings and BetMGM) came in first, followed by FanDuel (Valley Forge Resort) with $482.5m, a significant 56% rise from the previous year.
In third position, with $356.6m in revenue, Rush Street Interactive had a relatively moderate growth of 7.8%. Revenue from icasino games more than doubled to $102 million at Caesars, the following year.
Promos cause a decline in sports betting income.
Pennsylvania saw an increase in revenue from igaming, but sports betting did not do as well. Revenue after promotional credits was down 1.1% year-on-year to $486.6m, despite a 13% increase in handle to $8.17bn. This decline was due to a 9% hold.
Looking at the data by channel, we can see that internet generated $694.5m while retail generated $38.0m. Hand totals $7.67 billion with $495.5 million wagered in brick-and-mortar sportsbooks.
The market leader, FanDuel, had players wager $3.31 billion and generated $249.4 million in revenue, a decrease of 2.4%, from a 7.5% hold. While the revenue total was up 24.7% from the previous year, DraftKings' 6.1% hold (GGR of $137.1m from $2.24bn in handle) was quite modest.
BetMGM came in third, with $516.7 million wagered by clients and $21.2 million in revenue after promotional expenditure, an increase of 0.4%.
