Monthly Pennsylvania Gaming Revenue Tops $400 Million For Second Straight Month

HARRISBURG, PA:  The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board posted reports today on its website that show that the combined total revenue in April 2021 generated from all forms of gaming regulated by the Board along with fantasy contests was $404,105,692, eclipsing the record for total revenue achieved in the previous month of March.

In releasing and historically comparing the April figures, the Board again noted that due to Covid-19 restrictions, all casinos were closed during the entirety of April 2020, so no revenue was generated by slot machines, table games or retail sportsbooks. Video Gaming Terminals (VGTs) were also not in operation last April. Therefore, in order to provide a fairer comparison of this month’s revenue figures of those type of gaming, the Board is providing where appropriate in this release a comparison of this year’s revenue against that of April 2019 when COVID restrictions were not in place. Using that comparison, this month’s total revenue was 42% above that of April 2019 when the total revenue was $283,881,862.

Sources of gaming revenue regulated by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board include slot machines, table games, internet gaming, sports wagering, fantasy contests and VGTs. The Board has posted separate reports for these types of gaming on its website, https://gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov/

The following chart compiles all revenue generated in April 2021 by casinos along with fantasy contests and video gaming terminals operated by other vendors and includes a comparison to total revenue generated last April.

Additionally, total tax revenue before any adjustments was $165,795,000.

Revenue by Game Type

The Board is also providing a synopsis of revenue year-over-year by types of games: 

Slot Machine Revenue

April’s gross revenue from slot machines was $201,386,057. Due to Covid19 restrictions in 2020 casinos where closed for all of April.

When comparing slot revenue from April 2019 (pre-covid19 revenue) to April 2021 there was a 0.51% increase with $200,359,403 in April 2019 compared $201,386,057 in April 2021.

The number of slot machines in operation in April 2021 was 19,994 compared to 25,207 machines in April 2020.

Slot machine revenue for each of the casinos is as follows. 

Tax revenue from the play of slots machines in April 2021 was $102,875,811*.

Table Games Revenue

Table games revenue for April 2021 was $77,839,427. Due to Covid19 restrictions in 2020 casinos where closed for all of April.

When comparing April 2019 when table games generated revenue of $77,448,426, there was a 0.5% increase in revenue this April.

Table games revenue for each of the casinos is as follows.

Total tax revenue from table games play during April 2021 was $12,527,978*.

Internet Casino-Type Gaming (iGaming) Revenue

Casino games offered online generated gross revenue of $92,676,448 during April 2021 compared to $43,067,881 in April 2020.

A breakdown of revenue of casino games offered online in April 2021 is as follows:

Tax revenue generated from internet gaming play during April 2021 was $38,613,510*.

Total iGaming revenue for each of the casino operators during April 2021 and April 2020, if applicable, is as follows:

Sports Wagering Revenue

Taxable revenue during April 2021 for sports wagering was $26,296,483, compared to $2,883,471 in April of last year. The Board is noting that sports wagering numbers were greatly affected in April 2020 due to the shutdown of major North American sports leagues.

April 2021 sports wagering total handle and revenue is as follows:

¹Operated by Parx Casino

² Operated by Mohegan Sun Pocono

³ A breakout of the handle between retail and online sportsbooks can be found on the website report.

Sports wagering revenue for each of the casinos for April 2021 and April 2020, if applicable, is as follows:

¹Operated by Parx Casino

² Operated by Mohegan Sun Pocono

³ Online only; retail operations closed due to Covid-19 restrictions

Tax revenue generated from sports wagering during April 2021 was $9,466,734*.

Video Gaming Terminals

Total adjusted revenue for April 2021 for video gaming terminals (VGTs) was $3,851,012. The revenue amount for VGTs in April was the highest monthly amount to date eclipsing $3,641,470 in March 2021. By the close of April 2021, four VGT Terminal Operators were operating the maximum permitted five machines at 44 truck stop establishments.

Truck Stop VGT adjusted revenue for each of the terminal operators during April 2021 is as follows:

¹ operated VGTs in 24 establishments during April

² operated VGTs in 10 establishments during April

³ operates VGTs in 6 establishments during April

⁴ operates VGTs in 4 establishments during April

Tax revenue collected from the play of VGTs in April 2021 was $2,002,526.

Fantasy Contests

Fantasy Contests revenue was $2,056,266 in April 2021, an increase of 1129.43% over April 2020, when revenue was $167,254. The Board is again noting that fantasy contest numbers were greatly affected in April 2020 due to the shutdown of major North American sports leagues.

Fantasy Contests adjusted revenue for each of the operators which had revenue for April 2021 and April 2020 are displayed in the following table:

Tax revenue collected from the play of Fantasy Contests in April 2021 was $308,440*.

*All tax revenue figures reflect amount generated prior to any adjustments by the PA Department of Revenue

About the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is tasked to oversee all aspects of gambling at 14 land-based casinos, online casino games, retail and online sports wagering, and Video Gaming Terminals (VGTs) at qualified truck stops, along with the regulation of online fantasy sports contests.

The land-based casino industry in Pennsylvania consists of six racetrack (Category 1) casinos, five stand-alone (Category 2) casinos, two resort (Category 3) casinos and one mini-casino (Category 4).  Casino expansion will continue over the next couple of years with the anticipated openings of up to four additional Category 4 casinos. A significant job generator in the Commonwealth, casinos and the other types of Board-regulated gaming annually generate over $1.5 billion in tax revenue.

Additional information about both the PGCB’s gaming regulatory efforts and Pennsylvania’s gaming industry can be found at https://gamingcontrolboard.pa.gov/ . You can also follow the agency on Twitter by choosing @PAGamingControl.