While the post-football and post-holiday period can be a quiet time for wagering, Pennsylvania sports betting and online casinos in January smashed records.
Meanwhile, two major gaming organizations, the American Gaming Association (AGA) and the Association of Gaming Equipment Manufacturers (AGEM) have joined forces to combat the proliferation of unregulated gambling devices flooding Pennsylvania and the rest of the country.
Sports betting grew, led by DraftKings
PA sportsbooks took in a record $348.4 million in wagers, and revenue increased to over $22.8 million in January 2020.
Much of the growth came from DraftKings Sportsbook with its online handle and revenue jumping significantly.
January’s record wagers broke December’s record handle of $342.2 million. Last January, when there were no online books in PA, retail sportsbooks accounted for just $32 million.
There are now eight PA sports betting apps, which took $308.6 million in bets last month. That means around 89% of the bets were placed online, a slight increase over the previous month.
Online revenue also set a new record, helped along by FanDuel’s new online casino.
PA online casinos increased monthly revenue by 31.4%
Revenue from PA online casinos increased in January by a staggering 31.4% from December.
Slots, table games, and online poker reached just under $14 million last month, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB). Gross online revenue in December was over $10.6 million.
PlaySugarHouse (Rivers Casino Philadelphia) continued to dominate online casino with nearly $3.55 million from online slots and table games. FanDuel Casino, despite opening with eight days left in January, posted the third highest revenue with nearly $2.1 million.
Online slot revenues accounted for more than $7.19 million in revenue in January. That’s a significant increase, as December internet slot revenue was just over $5.57 million.
While continuing to trail slots, online table games had a strong January with revenue of more than $4.6 million. A whopping $1.7 million of that came from FanDuel over eight days.
Campaign targeting unregulated gambling devices launched
More than 20 professional gaming organizations have joined a partnership of the AGA and the AGEM in opposition to the spread of unregulated gaming.
The group is distributing resource materials to Keystone State lawmakers, regulators, and law enforcement. Their factsheet lays out how to identify illegal and gray market gambling devices which lack of testing, consumer protections, and responsible gaming measures.
Casinos in PA have 24,000 slot machines, highly regulated and taxed. On the other hand, more than 15,000, and perhaps as many as 20,000 unregulated devices are scattered around the state.
The PA State Police have resumed seizing devices after being cleared by the courts.
