According to the state regulator, live dealer casino games accounted for over half of the revenue generated from online table games at Pennsylvania online casinos during the last fiscal year.
Revenue from igaming in PA totaled $1.5 billion in FY 2022-2023, up 24.4% year-over-year ($1.2 billion), according to a 44-page report published by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) on Sunday.
While the regulator didn’t provide an exact figure for live dealer revenue, the PGCB did report that revenue from online table games totaled $428.5 million during the fiscal year, which ended on June 30. That equates to at least $214.3 million from live dealer games — or 14% of total igaming revenue.
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“A breakdown of this revenue shows that interactive slot machines for the first time eclipsed the $1 billion mark,” PGCB said. The regulator said the only interactive gaming sector that saw revenue decline year-over-year was real money online poker in PA — which fell 9.4% to $31.9 million.
The PGCB noted that Evolution Gaming was operating the state’s only live dealer studio at the fiscal year’s end — with 75 live dealer tables actively supporting 19 online casinos in PA.
Overall gaming revenue hit a record $5.5 billion during the fiscal year, up 9.6% year-over-year ($5 billion). Tax revenue also hit a record $2.2 billion, up 10.2% from the prior fiscal year ($2 billion).
According to the regulator, the total handle from sports betting in PA was a record $7.2 billion. Sports wagering taxable revenue also hit a record $491 million.
What Happened in the Last Fiscal Year
Two online casinos launched during the last fiscal year — Tropicana Casino PA launched in April and Bally Casino PA followed suit in June.
Bally is one of two Qualified Gaming Entities (QGEs) in the state, meaning it has a standalone license and is not tethered to a land-based casino. A second QGE, Golden Nugget Casino PA, launched in September, is not included in the latest PGCB report.
Tropicana operates under the Harrah’s Philadelphia license and is the state’s 19th online casino. Meanwhile, Bally is the state’s 20th online casino, and Golden Nugget is the 21st.
On the land-based side, Parx Casino Shippensburg, one of four mini-casinos authorized in Pennsylvania, opened its doors in February. The property is owned by privately held Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment.
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Paying It Forward
Executive Director Kevin O’Toole said jurisdictions from around the world have reached out to the PGCB in recent years for assistance in setting up their own regulatory frameworks for gaming. He said PGCB recently hosted representatives from the Bahamas for several days at their offices in Harrisburg.
“In its early years, the PGCB was fortunate to receive advice from casino regulators at established gaming jurisdictions as we created a framework of regulation that fit the Commonwealth market,” O’Toole said in comments for the report.
“The PGCB has now established itself as one of the most respected and effective gaming regulatory agencies in the world. So now it is time to pay it forward.”
In last year’s annual report, the PGCB estimated that up to ten new PA online casino platforms would launch by the end of June 2023. At the time, a spokesperson for the regulator named six possible candidates for that expansion — Bally, Fanatics, Fubo, Golden Nugget, PlayStar, and WynnBET.
Three of those guesses turned out to be correct, as Bally and Golden Nugget have launched in the state as QGEs and Fanatics acquired PointsBet’s market access via the Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course license. And PlayStar, which is partnered with Caesars, could still launch in the state.
Fubo ceased operations last fall and likely abandoned its plans to launch in the Keystone State. Similarly, in August, WynnBET trimmed its operations to just four states — Pennsylvania isn’t one of them.
