SugarHouse Out To An Early Lead In Online Casino Revenue Race

Written By Kevin Shelly on August 16, 2019 - Last Updated on August 9, 2022

The Pennsylvania online casino industry, still in its infancy, just started operations in July. The baby steps from the new industry resulted in $812,306 in revenue for the trio of operational online casinos. More than $49.2 million was wagered on interactive slots and table games across the sites, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB).

The total gross revenue in July for all online slots at the three PA casinos was $517,712. Table games brought in $294,594.

This transpired over just two weeks of operation, as the first sites did not go live until July 15. August will produce the first full month of revenue numbers.

By comparison, in the more mature New Jersey market, online casinos earned $39.3 million in July, a new all-time record for their market.

Online casino games did not begin to launch in PA until July 15, meaning the numbers should keep growing.

Online casino revenue numbers for July 2019

Here is a look at how each site performed during the first couple of weeks of operation:

CasinoTotal revenueSlots revenueTable games revenue
SugarHouse$422,796$261,869$160,927
Parx$260,214$139,903$120,221
Hollywood$129,386$115,940$13,446
Total$812,306$517,712$294,594

SugarHouse out front with Parx in the middle

SugarHouse Casino got off to an early lead in the revenue department, with $422,796 in revenue across its slots and table games offerings. That number represents a 52% market share. The fact that PlaySugarHouse PA Casino was accessible to iPhone users on browser thanks to GeoGuard is likely what gave them the upper hand. The other two sites were only available on desktop and Android.

Even without Apple, Parx produced $260,124 in overall gross revenue. It was a relatively even split between slots and table games, at $139,903 and $120,221 respectively.

Parx had $19.2 million in bets on online table games. Currently, Parx is the only online casino with a blackjack offering, which likely explains why table games revenue was so high.

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Hollywood Casino brings up the rear

Hollywood Casino brought in the smallest haul of the three, with $129,386 in revenue, all but $13,446 of which came from slots. Even though it has the largest slot library in the state, only a handful of titles were on the site’s new iPhone app. Nonetheless, Hollywood struggled to keep up with the competition in its first two weeks of operation.

State tax haul totals $367K

Don’t forget that another big winner when it comes to online casinos is the Commonwealth. With its hefty 54% tax rate on slots and 16% on table games, the state’s take from July was not insubstantial. Slot-revenue tax for the month totaled $279,565, while table games produced $47,135 in taxes. That adds up to a total of $326,700 in Pennsylvania’s pocket.

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Kevin Shelly

Kevin C. Shelly is an award-winning career journalist who has spent most of his career in South Jersey. He's the former assistant city editor of The Press of Atlantic City, where he covered the casino industry and Atlantic City government as a reporter. He was also an investigative, narrative enterprise, and features reporter for Gannett’s Courier-Post.

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