iGaming Contributes 21% to Total Gaming Revenue in Pennsylvania
After all of the land-based casinos were forced into multiple lockdowns throughout the year, online casinos really took off. While the brick and mortar suffered, a few were able to get by thanks to the money being brought in by their online platforms.
Month after month, PA online casinos continued to break new records for the amount of revenue collected.
In October and November (2020) online casinos recorded over $57 million in revenue for each month. They ended the year even stronger and had total revenue of $71.6 million for the month of December.
Compared to December 2019, this was an increase of over $10 million.
Currently, Pennsylvania is only third behind New Jersey and Nevada, in terms of revenue, for the biggest gaming industry in the country, and are showing no signs of slowing down.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Releases 2020 Gaming Data
According to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), online casinos brought in $556.77 million in revenue over the year, while land-based slot machines raked in the most revenue, at over $1 billion.
Online casinos even brought in more revenue than brick and mortar table games!
However, even with a huge increase in online gameplay, land-based casinos took a hard hit in 2020 due to having to close because of COVID-19. This resulted in the state recording a 22% decrease in gaming revenue compared to the previous year (2019).
Here’s a full gaming breakdown in Pennsylvania for the year:
| Type of Gaming | Revenue |
| Slot Machines | $1.3B |
| iGaming | $565.7M |
| Land-Based Casino Table Games | $504.3M |
| Retail and Online Sports | $189.7M |
| Fantasy | $21.1M |
| Video Gaming Terminals | $16.6M |
Retail and online sportsbooks combined only brought in $189.7 million. This raises the question across America as to why so many states are quick to legalize online sports betting, but hesitant when it comes to regulating online casinos.
What’s In Store for 2021?
Understandably, brick and mortars have a lot of catching up to do to make up for the lost time in 2020.
At the time of writing, all 13 land-based casinos in PA are open again and accepting customers, but enforcing a number of precautions to keep everyone safe and healthy.
This means operating at half the usual capacity, sanitizing machines after every use, and installing dividers between players and dealers.
Online casinos are still thriving, with a couple of new operators expected to launch in the state over the next few months. While PokerStars is still the only online poker platform available to PA players, WSOP is expected to debut in the state any day now.
BetMGM, one of the newer casinos in Pennsylvania, has also announced plans to offer its poker site in the near future.