Pennsylvania Casino Revenues Fall 4.3% in August

Pennsylvania’s casino industry consistently posted monthly year-on-year growth between September 2015 and May 2016, but since then its casino market has started to splutter slightly. In June, revenues declined for the first time in almost a year, albeit by a mere 0.02%, and after rebounding by 2.95% in July, August has seen revenues fall once more, this time by a more significant 4.3%, or $12.7 million lower than the same month in 2015.
According to the latest results released by the Gaming Control Board, Pennsylvania’s 12 casinos generated revenues of $260,904,471 in August, with both table games and slot machines posting y-o-y declines. While table game revenues fell by 3.73% to $66,955,105, the story was worse for slot machine revenues which tumbled by 4.47% to $193,949,366. The Keystone State subsequently received around $115 million by way of tax revenues.
Last month, just one of the state’s casinos posted higher revenues versus August 2015, namely Philadelphia’s SugarHouse Casino whose business improved by 7% to $1.5 million. In addition, the Parx Casino’s revenues was flat year-over-year. All the rest of Pennsylvania gambling venues reported shrinking revenues, with Mount Airy Casino Resort and Meadows Casino hit by double-digit y-o-y losses.
On the plus side, part of the poor performance can be explained by August having one less weekend this year compared to 2015. Furthermore, Pennsylvania’s casino market is still on track to beat the record revenues set last year of $3.173 billion.
Nevertheless, August is traditionally a banner month for the state’s gambling market, and its surprise drop in business will now have analysts cautiously anticipating September’s results.
2016 Monthly Revenues:
January: $255,905,078 (+3.6%)
February: $268,354,231 (+8.6%)
March: $289,167,505 (+4.2%)
April: $281,206,497 (+3.9%)
May: $280,194,999 (+.80%)
June: $258,423,105 (-0.2%)
July: $288,451,402 (+2.95%)
August: $260,904,471 (-4.28%)
Pennsylvania opened it first legal casino in 2006, and after introducing table games in 2010 annual revenues have never dropped below $3 billion. The industry employs around 18,000 people across the state, and so far has generated more than $1.4 billion in tax revenues.