New Operators Like FanDuel Supercharging PA Online Casino Revenue Growth

Written By Valerie Cross on February 20, 2020 - Last Updated on April 10, 2024
New PA online casino operators lead growth surge

Nearly $303 million in total PA gaming revenue for January 2020 represents a strong start to the year.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) reports a 17% increase year over year, compared to January 2019. With the addition of so many more avenues of regulated gaming over the last year, that revenue increase is none too surprising.

In addition to traditional casino slots and table games, PA now has many more gaming revenue streams, including a host of PA online gambling sites. Included in the gaming revenue are online casino and online poker, retail and online sports betting, daily fantasy contests and video gaming terminals.

It all adds up to growing revenue for operators and healthy tax dollars for the Commonwealth. For the month of January alone, total tax revenue from gaming in PA came out to just over $124 million.

Online gaming scene grows, FanDuel leading the charge

Last year concluded with a total of eight PA online sportsbooks and five online casinos. In January, three new casino operators joined the market ahead of the Super Bowl Sunday.

Two of those, FanDuel Casino and BetAmerica, reported revenue in January. BetRivers also added an online casino just in time for the Big Game but was not included in the monthly revenue report.

BetAmerica, which launched through Presque Isle Downs, barely got off the ground in January, launching Jan. 30. That explains their low $9,900 total revenue for the month. It’s interesting to note, table games revenue made up more than two-thirds of that total.

FanDuel Casino, on the other hand, made a huge splash in its eight days with online casino last month. In fact, most of the reported 31.4% month-over-month revenue increase for January can be attributed to the new casino offering. In its limited time, FanDuel Casino brought in the second-most monthly revenue among online operators with $2.1 million.

Table games dominated that revenue, accounting for $1.7 million, more than 4.5 times that of online slots. Slot revenue totaled $375,000 for the month at FanDuel. The small sample size so far for FanDuel Casino could signal big numbers to come.

Comparing apples to apples

The five operators that have been around in the last three months have seen slow but relatively steady overall growth of late. PlaySugarHouse, Hollywood and Parx were first with online casinos back in July 2019. PokerStars and Unibet Casino joined them in November.

All five operators had month-over-month growth from December to January, apart from PokerStars/Mount Airy, which had a revenue dip last month, in both slots and table games. Here’s a look at revenue for the last three months at each of these online casinos.

CasinoNov. 2019 revenue
Dec. 2019 revenueJan. 2020 revenue
SugarHouse (Rivers Casino Philadelphia)$3,171,762$2,970,222$3,549,970
Hollywood Casino (Penn National Race Course)$1,867,657$1,692,797$2,405,023
Parx Casino$1,495,846$1,523,041$1,644,854
PokerStars Casino (Mount Airy Casino)$1,023,637$1,559,057$1,322,829
Unibet (Mohegan Sun Pocono)$131,415$406,445$786,447
Total$7,690,317$8,151,562$9,709,123

Slot revenue at these operators in the last three months have experienced similar slow, steady growth. Healthy bumps at PlaySugarHouse and Hollywood carried the December to January slot revenue growth.

CasinoNov. 2019 slots revenueDec. 2019 slots revenueJan. 2020 slots revenue
SugarHouse (Rivers Casino Philadelphia)$2,086,283$1,875,628$2,420,204
Hollywood Casino (Penn National Race Course)$1,656,204$1,472,941$2,143,292
Parx Casino$890,471$1,025,524$1,154,368
PokerStars Casino (Mount Airy Casino)$365,657$753,570$589,879
Unibet (Mohegan Sun Pocono)$95,173$442,922$505,867
Total$5,093,788$5,570,585$6,813,610

Table games revenue is growing at a slower pace among these operators. Unibet, which posted a small loss in tables revenue in December, showed the biggest gain in January.

CasinoNov. 2019 table games revenueDec. 2019 table games revenueJan. 2020 table games revenue
SugarHouse (Rivers Casino Philadelphia)$1,085,479$1,094,594$1,129,765
Hollywood Casino (Penn National Race Course)$211,453$219,855$261,731
Parx Casino$605,375$497,518$490,486
PokerStars Casino (Mount Airy Casino)$657,980$805,487$732,950
Unibet (Mohegan Sun Pocono)$36,242($36,477)$280,580
Total$2,596,529$2,580,977$2,895,512

Online slots vs. table games breakdown varies by operator

Of the $11.8 million January online casino revenue (not including online poker), $7.2 million was from slots and $4.6 million was from table games. That breakdown is not uncommon in online casino, but it doesn’t tell the whole story in PA.

Overall at PA online casinos, table games are bringing in more wagers, though slots produce more revenue for the operators and more tax revenue for the state.

On some online casino sites, table games prove dominant in terms of revenue, but even more so in total wagers. The most drastic example comes from FanDuel Casino. In its eight days operational in January, FanDuel brought in an impressive $84.7 million in table games wagers and only $9.3 million in slots bets.

Table games also dominate at PokerStars, with total wagers coming in at more than double that of slots. Revenue difference is less dramatic, with $730,000 for tables and $590,000 for slots.

Unibet Casino is another interesting case, with $18.7 million in table games wagers compared to $11.1 million in slots wagers. Slots still produced more revenue, however, with $500,000 to $280,000.

Here you can compare the handle and revenue across PA online casino operators in January.

Online OperatorSlot wagersSlot revenueTables wagersTables revenue
SugarHouse (Rivers Philly)$70.4 million$2.4 million$76 million$1.1 million
Hollywood (Penn National)$47.3 million$2.1 million$22.3 million$260,000
FanDuel (Valley Forge)$9.3 million$380,000$84.7 million$1.7 million
Parx Casino$32.4 million$1.2 million$23 million$490,000
PokerStars (Mt. Airy)$22.1 million$590,000$49.3 million$730,000
Unibet (Mohegan Sun)$11.1 million$500,000$18.7 million$280,000
BetAmerica (Presque Isle)$57,000$3,000$90,000$7,000
Monthly totals$192.7 million$7.2 million$274 million$4.6 million

A 34% state tax on slot revenue yielded over $2.4 million-plus over $1.4 million more for local entities. By contrast, 14% of table games revenue brought $645,000 for the state and $92,000 for the local share assessment (2%) in January.

Online poker strong and steady with a single operator

January was the third month into online poker in PA, and there remains just one operator. PokerStars PA continues its strong foothold in the state, posting strong revenue for the third month in a row.

A steady stream of online tournament series so far has helped contribute to the consistent intake. The newest is the Bounty Builder Series, running Feb. 20-March 1.

Here’s a look at revenue and tax for PokerStars PA since its start in early November.

MonthRevenueState/local tax (16%)
November 2019$1,965,494$314,479
December 2019$2,473,137$395,702
January 2020$2,157,266$345,162
Total to date:$6,595,897$1,055,343

Online casino and poker may have gotten off to a slow start in PA, but the addition of new operators looks likely to supercharge the slow and steady growth we’ve seen thus far. When more sites join PokerStars in offering online poker remains a question that will likely be answered in the coming months.

Valerie Cross Avatar
Written by
Valerie Cross

Valerie Cross is Editor-in-Chief of Catena Media's regional sites portfolio which includes mature gambling market sites like PlayPennsylvania, PlayMichigan and PlayNJ as well as sites covering emerging markets. Valerie was a poker writer and editor for PokerNews before joining the regulated sports betting and online gambling industry in 2019. She received her BA from Furman University in 2007 in Spanish and Psychology and completed her MA and Ph.D. at Indiana University in Language Education.

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