Pennsylvania’s online casinos and poker rooms’ March performance has shattered past records, with the region’s online and retail sportsbooks surging to a second-highest monthly volume in state history.
The Keystone State’s igaming entities reached $97.7m in revenue during March, breaking the record $80.4m set in January. This yielded $22.6m in state taxes and another $13.3m in local share assessments and county grants.
Online casinos also generated a per day revenue record, producing $3.2m in revenue per day for the 31 days in March, which was up from the previous high of $2.8m over the 28 days in February.
Year-over year, revenue is up 292.4 per cent from $24.9m from March 2020, with online casino wagering having grown 275 per cent to $3.3bn from $871.6bn.
Penn National, which includes the DraftKings, BetMGM, and Hollywood casinos, led the market with $33.6m in revenue, with Rivers Philadelphia, which includes PlaySugarHouse and BetRivers, second with $27.1m. Mount Airy/PokerStars, the lone poker operator in the state, generated poker revenue of $2.4m.
“The year-over-year gains in revenue are staggering,” said Valerie Cross, analyst for PlayPennsylvania.com. “The pandemic-related shutdowns of the state’s retail casinos changed bettor behaviour for the foreseeable future. This is evident as online casino gaming keeps setting records, even as brick-and-mortar restrictions are eased.”
March also saw Pennsylvania’s online and retail sportsbooks collect $560.3m, in bets, which is up 326.6 per cent from $131.3m in March 2020, a month marred by the shutdown of major sports.
This performance also produced $41m in gross gaming revenue, which is a 376.7 per cent increase from 2020’s $8.6m. This yielded $29.4m in taxable revenue, up 326.1 per cent from $6.9m a year ago. The revenue produced in March created $10m in state taxes and $587,047 in local share assessment. Pennsylvania sportsbooks have now generated $506.7m in gross gaming revenue since launching.
“March’s results show just how important the NCAA Tournament can be in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, giving a huge boost to sportsbooks at a time when football is dormant,” added Dustin Gouker, lead analyst for PlayPennsylvania.com.
“With last year’s tournament cancelled, sportsbooks were left a revenue hole that they could not fill. Pennsylvania itself was a bit of an unknown, since the last time the NCAA Tournament was held online sports betting had yet to launch. This really sets sportsbooks up for a strong rest of the year, especially in comparison with 2020.”