Pennsylvania Casinos Down 7% To $230m In January

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has released its monthly figures for January, revealing a 7% decline in revenues to $230 million compared to the $247 million taken in the same month a year earlier. The state then collected $8.4 million in taxes for January.
State regulators say the lackluster results were caused by the extremely cold weather and heavy snow which affected the northeastern state and kept some gamblers away from the casinos.
Breaking the figures down further, Pennsylvania 12 casinos generated $58.7 million from table games in January, 1.12% less revenues than a year ago, while slot machines reported a steep decline of 9% to $171.8 million, compared to the $188.2 million generated in January 2013.
Pennsylvania approved casino gambling back in 2004, and by 2012 had risen to become the second largest gambling resort in the US, a distinction previously held by neighboring New Jersey. Just like Atlantic City, however, Pennsylvania has recently had to contend with greater competition from nearby states, too, as states such as Maryland, New York, Ohio and Delaware continue to wrestle market share away Pennsylvania.
Last year, for instance, Pennsylvania casinos reported a 1.4% fall in revenues to $3.11 billion, with 11 out of the Keystone State’s 12 casinos reporting a drop in their slots revenues throughout the year. On the positive side, for the past three years Pennsylvania’s  annual casino results have topped $3 billion, and commenting on the state’s casino industry, gaming board spokesman Doug Harbach, said:
“There continues to be increased casino competition from all of Pennsylvania’s bordering states and that certainly is affecting year-over-year revenue. The good news is we continue to see revenue numbers from slot machines that are second in the U.S. behind Nevada and tax revenue generation that is the highest. So, in many ways you can still make the argument that Pennsylvania’s casino industry is doing very, very well.”