Pennsylvania Casino Revenue Up 3.3% To $259.8m In September

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has now released the combined figures for slots and table games at its 11 casinos for September, revealing a 3.3% increase in revenue to $259.8 million compared to $259,54m for the same month in 2011. Overall, the state raked in $116.9 million in tax revenue in September.
Breaking the figures down further, slots accounted for $200.5 million of the gross revenue, up a little less than 1% year year on year, while the table games tally was up by 15.4% to $59.3 million. However, the Valley Forge Casino Resort opened in March this year and generated $2.9 million of revenue in September. Comparing just casinos in operation during both time periods, revenue derived from table games was up by less than 10% overall.
Heading the state’s top casino earners was Parx Casino whose slots revenue reached $30 million in September, albeit 3.5% down on last year’s tally.  In addition, Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem was up 3.29% to $22.7m; the Rivers Casino down 4.34% to $23.35m, while the biggest declines were recorded by Presque Isle Downs and Casino down 11.6% to $12.75m and SugarHouse Casino down 5.31% to $14.18m.
Pennsylvania first legalized casino gambling in 2004 with its first casino opening in 2006 and  table games added in 2010. The continuing success of the state’s gambling industry has had a powerful impact on neighboring Atlantic City’s, whose gambling revenue peaked at $5.2 billion in 2006 but has steadily declined to reach $3.3 billion for the whole of last year.
Atlantic City used to be the second biggest gambling market in the USA, but has since lost that title to Pennsylvania. Whereas Atlantic City has experienced monthly declines in revenue over the past 35 months, Pennsylvania has been heading in the complete opposite direction.