Valley Forge Revenue Bounces Back Big In May With 25% Uptick

May was a relatively flat month for Pennsylvania’s 12 casinos.

Total casino revenue rose just .43 percent year-over-year, and on an individual level, slot and table game revenue were also pretty flat, but still on the plus side. Both verticals posted only incremental gains of .4 and .6 percent respectively.

However, once you zoom out and look at each casino individually, the Pennsylvania gaming market starts to get interesting. On a casino-by-casino basis, Y/Y revenue changes range from Mount Airy’s -9.62 percent to Valley Forge’s +25.18 percent.

Top line numbers for May 2018

Here’s a look at the top line May numbers:

Slot machine revenue: $203,993,259.02 (+.37 percent)
Table game revenue: $74,908,874 (+.6 percent)
Total gaming revenue: $278,902,133 (+.43 percent)

12 month slot revenue trend

After suffering through a prolonged period of decline, Pennsylvania slot revenue has largely stabilized.

The last 12 months have seen an equal mix of revenue increases and declines. Furthermore, only one month has seen an increase or decrease of more than two percent.

June 2017 slot machine revenue: $188,520,750 (-.77 percent)
July 2017 slot machine revenue: $209,124,965.58 (-2.01 percent)
August 2017 slot machine revenue: $193,190,477.69 (-.39 percent)
September 2017 slot machine revenue: $195,396,966.03 (+1.69 percent)
October 2017 slot machine revenue: $189,527,493.24 (-1.21 percent)
November 2017 slot machine revenue: $181,329,655.27 (+1.08 percent)
December 2017 slot machine revenue: $187,614,378.63 (+1.22 percent)
January 2018 slot machine revenue: $177,795,127.32 (-1.39 percent)
February 2018 slot machine revenue: $189,056,194.76 (-1.67 percent)
March 2018 slot machine revenue: $221,350,220.10 (+5.41 percent)
April 2018 slot machine revenue: $206,178,527.52 (+.23 percent)
May 2018 slot machine revenue: $203,993,259.02 (+.37 percent)

A look at who was up and who was down in March

As noted above, revenue was flat industry-wide, but there was a lot of variance among the state’s 12 casino properties. For most of the Keystone State’s casino operators, May was a month of either big gains or big losses.

Just four of the state’s casinos bested their May 2017 revenue tallies, but three did so by more than five percent:

Valley Forge Casino Resort: +25.18%
Parx Casino: +7.11%
Rivers Casino: +5.08%
Presque Isle Downs and Casino: +1.33%

The other eight casinos all saw revenues decline Y/Y. Five of the eight casinos experienced significant declines, with revenue falling by at least three percent. Mount Airy has the dubious distinction of leading the way with a 9.6 percent Y/Y revenue decline in May.

Mount Airy Casino Resort: -9.62%
Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin: -8.62%
SugarHouse Casino: -4.94%
Harrah’s Philadelphia: -3.35%
Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem: -3.31%
Mohegan Sun Pocono: -1.47%
Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course: -1.03%
The Meadows Casino: -.04%

Market share and revenue comparisons

PA market analysis

Parx and Sands continue to go in opposite directions

Once again, Parx saw its revenue rise and Sands saw its revenue fall for the month.

The gap wasn’t as pronounced as it was in April (when Parx revenue rose 6.4 percent and Sands fell 9.5 percent), but the gap was still in the double digits. In May, Parx revenue rose 7.11 percent while Sands revenue declined 3.31 percent.

Sands did reassert its table-game dominance last month. After Parx closed to within $1 million of Sands in April, Sands rebounded in May, besting Parx table game revenue haul by over $3.5 million.

Valley Forge back in black

April looks like it may have been an outlier for Valley Forge, as the casino had been on a hot streak since November before revenue tumbled in April. A hot streak it restarted in May.

May saw revenue rise by over 25 percent, marking Valley Forge’s best month since Pennsylvania passed the gaming reform package that removed the amenity fee requirement in September.

November 2017: +12.4 percent
December 2017: +6.4 percent
January 2018: +13.9 percent
February 2018: +15 percent
March 2018: +10.5 percent
April 2018: – 5.64 percent
May 2018: +25.18 percent

Online lottery goes live

In addition to expanding land-based gaming, Pennsylvania’s gaming reform law also legalized a slew of online offerings:

So far, only the online lottery has gone live. The Pennsylvania online lottery launched in May with a very limited selection of games — the online lottery is currently in a soft launch phase.

The expanded lottery options are unlikely to affect casino revenue, but it’s something to keep an eye on, as Pennsylvania will be the first state where the this combination of gaming will coexist.