Pennsylvania Gaming Revenue Up 11% in January 2025
Pennsylvania gaming revenue in January shows no sign of winter blues.
Heavy betting on the Philadelphia Eagles broke PA sportsbook earnings in January. © Heidi Kaden, Pixabay
Key Facts:
- Online slot revenue grew by 44%
- The retail slot market still grew by 4%
- Overall casino earnings were up by almost 11% YOY
- Most sportsbooks held mid-single digits as hometown favorites Philadephia Eagles win Super Bowl
Pennsylvania was once again near record territory with its $529 million win in January. Both iGaming and brick and mortar casinos saw growth, but what might have been a record-breaking month was brought down by massive betting on local teams during the NFL playoffs. Still, revenue was up almost 11% from January 2024.
Sportsbook revenues slid 26%, and the state’s three biggest sportsbooks, Valley Forge, Hollywood Casino at the Meadows, and Hollywood Morgantown, held 8.45%, 6.7%, and 5%, respectively. But heavy betting on the Philadelphia Eagles in their playoff games leading up to the Super Bowl was the named culprit.
With the Eagles easily beating the Kansas City Chiefs in the Championship Game in the first week of February, it’s possible that sportsbooks were once again hammered. Still, the Super Bowl usually sees a lot of interest in parlays and prop bets that favor the house, so it remains to be seen what February sports book numbers will look like.
While the Eagles were playing spoiler to the sportsbook sector, the folks on the iGaming side saw nothing but blue skies and smooth sailing. Online slot revenue was up a whopping 44%, and internet table action powered up 33%. In total, more than $7 billion was wagered on online casino games in the month, and the casinos kept more than $210 million of that.
This was good for a more than 40% increase in total online growth, though the online poker numbers were down slightly by about 2%. With only about $2.5 million monthly earnings, poker makes up only a bit more than 1% of total online play.
With online growth like that, one might think it was just online gaming continuing to steal market share from declining brick-and-mortar casinos, but nothing could be further from the truth. While table games in land-based casinos only grew by 1.5%, slots posted a 4.7% YOY increase.
This was even more impressive when one considers the weather, with Philadelphia and surrounding areas receiving more than seven inches of snow and below-zero windchills on at least one January weekend.
Exceptional Land-Based Earnings
Total land-based casino revenue came in at more than $261 million, with slots earning $187 million and tables contributing an additional $73 million.
In the race for highest earning land-based casino, Parx came out on top with $45 million, while Wind Creek Bethlehem, which used to be the top earner for nearly a decade, once again failed to overtake its rival with $40 million in revenue.
But the real winner here is the commonwealth, which has one of the highest tax rates in the nation on online slots at 54% and a still sobering 16% on electronic table games. Sportsbook revenue from mobile betting also gets the bite, with a 36% tax rate.
This means that Harrisburg received an injection of over $221 million just for the month of January. In 2024, all gaming taxes sent to the state capital totaled more than $2.3 billion, almost twice what all of Nevada produced in gambling taxes last year. In fact, it’s the most of any state in the nation.
