Online casino revenue soared by 24.5% in March, according to figures released by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB).
On the other hand, overall gambling revenues were down 51% for the month due to closures forced by coronavirus containment measures.
Online revenue in PA for March topped $24.3 million, marking the highest revenue to date. Total play also reached an all-time high.
March follows a February record
The March numbers come on the heels of record-setting February revenue for PA online casinos with a staggering 39.6% jump over January revenue, which was itself up 31.4% over December 2019.
Gross revenue from online slots, table games and poker in March broke down as follows:
- $12.4 million for internet slot games
- $8.8 million for online table games
- More than $3.1 million for online poker
That came to nearly $8.6 million in tax revenue from online offerings.
Revenue doesn’t tell the entire story
Revenue, while important, doesn’t tell the entire story when it comes to gauging increasing player interest.
For instance, total wagers for March were $871.6 million, a 23.9% increase from February’s $703.6 million.
Handle for slot wagers increased 51.5%, while tables rose just 8.2%.
PA online casino revenue by operator in March
A complete breakdown of March revenue, including slots and tables games, can be found here:
| Casino | Total revenue | Slots revenue | Table games revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| SugarHouse & BetRivers* (Rivers Casino Philadelphia) | $6,757,345 | $4,764,687 | $1,992,658 |
| FanDuel Casino (Valley Forge) | $4,969,253 | $969,992 | $3,999,261 |
| PokerStars Casino (Mount Airy Casino) | $2,830,694 | $1,403,050 | $1,427,644 |
| Parx Casino | $2,728,129 | $2,173,693 | $554,436 |
| Hollywood Casino (Penn National Race Course) | $2,618,503 | $2,438,828 | $179,675 |
| Unibet (Mohegan Sun Pocono) | $803,000 | $517,192 | $285,808 |
| BetAmerica Casino (Presque Isle Downs) | $425,878 | $83,204 | $342,674 |
| Total | $21,132,802 | $12,350,645 | $8,782,156 |
Top online operators in PA
Rivers Casino Philadelphia was the top PA online casino operator for the month, with more than $6.75 million from online slots and table games. Slots accounted for $4.76 million, the top figure in the category.
That should be taken with a grain of salt, though, as it includes both online casino skins under the license, PlaySugarHouse and BetRivers.
It’s possible, then, that FanDuel (Valley Forge Casino Resort) was actually the top operator. FanDuel, which was the revenue leader in February with nearly $6.1 million, saw a drop in March revenue to nearly $5 million.
But FanDuel continues to own the table games category with revenue of nearly $4 million and brought in 42.5% of total online table games wagers.
Next in total revenue was PokerStars Casino (Mount Airy Casino) with more than $2.8 million in revenue from slots and tables in a near-even split. The brand brought in even more through online poker.
Online poker taking off during shutdown
More than half of PokerStars PA’s online revenue — $3.13 million — came from poker. It represents PokerStars’ best month since launching in November and a whopping 71.2% increase from February.
As big as PokerStars PA was in March, look for its April poker number to post far bigger, as it is currently running its biggest series yet, PASCOOP, and doing well with filling seats.
The increased handle for March, the continued closures of land-based casinos through April and gamblers’ growing interest in wagering online should ensure another growth month in April.