People may not have been able to walk into Pennsylvania casinos during April due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, but it doesn’t mean they’ve given up legal gambling.
April 2020 revenue for online casino-type games – which include slot machines, table games and poker – jumped 73 % above that of March of this year, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
The biggest increase was within the slot-machine segment where revenue more than doubled from $12.9 million in March to $27.3 million in April.
The sound of beeps and chimes of slot machines at The Meadows Racetrack and Casino ceased March 16. All of the state’s dozen casinos were closed the entire month of April.
Board-regulated gaming has annually generated over $1.5 billion in tax revenue, but that’s not likely to happen amidst up-close and personal contact that can result in community spread of a highly contagious disease.
Gaming board statistics show Pennsylvanians prefer hands-on activity to online. Overall gaming revenue was down 84% in April of this year compared with April 2019. State tax revenue from all forms of gaming in April 2020 was $18,334,503.
Other games available during the COVID-19 shutdown include online sports wagering and fantasy contests.
April 2020 total sports wagering revenue from 13 retail and nine online outlets was $2,883,471, which was 58% lower than the March 2020 total of $6,889,255.
The retail outlets were not operational during April, but continued to make payouts on earlier determined wagers.
The Meadows Racetrack and Casino recorded total revenue of $706,589, all of which was done online. The total handle was $12.5 million.
Fantasy contests’ revenue was $167,254 in April 2020, a decrease of 91% over April of last year when revenue was $1,852,552.
DraftKings produced $123,748 in revenue last month, down from $845,553 in April 2019.
FanDuel was down a whopping 95%, bringing in $43,508 to state coffers, down $961,867 a year ago. Fantasy Draft and five other options were reduced to producing no revenue at all.
In Pennsylvania, there are 10 stand-alone and racetrack casino, plus two smaller resort casinos, including Lady Luck at Nemacolin Woodlands.
Penn National Gaming Inc. owns The Meadows and Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article. See official rules here.