February may have included a number of high-profile sporting events including the Super Bowl but none of them seemed to be enough to sustain a revenue bump in the Keystone State. The state’s nascent sports betting market recorded drops on handle and revenue despite the fact that there was a total of 6 operation sportsbooks last month as opposed to the three that were operating in January.
According to the figures that were released by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, all the operational casinos in the state only handled wagers worth $31.5 million in February. Betting revenue from this totaled to just $1.95 million. These are fairly significant drops from the previously recorded $32 handle and $2.6 million that the casinos reported in January with just three sportsbooks.
Winners and Losers
| Casino | Handle | Gross Revenue | Tax |
| SugarHouse Sportsbook | $7,091,933.11 | $522,308.00 | $188,030.88 |
| Rivers Sportsbook | $8,147,558.96 | $627,520.99 | $225,907.56 |
| Parx Sportsbook | $6,965,511.90 | $369,995.89 | $133,198.52 |
| Hollywood Sportsbook | $3,742,819.85 | $13,914.20 | $5,009.11 |
| South Philadelphia Turf Club | $2,601,650.62 | $275,876.90 | $99,315.69 |
| Harrah’s Philadelphia | $2,951,267.50 | $137,200.52 | $49,392.19 |
| Total | $31,500,741.94 | $1,946,816.50 | $700,853.95 |
As for these casinos’ non-sports betting verticals, their market-wide gaming revenue came in just below $264 million – this represented a modest 0.4 percent year-over-year increase. Table game revenue went up 0.33 percent to a whopping $74 million while slot machine revenue increased by 0.5 percent to a whopping $190 million. Daily fantasy sports, on the other hand, reported $1.63 million in revenue last month – DraftKings reported $906,451 while FanDuel earned a rather modest $622,815.
As mentioned earlier, the revenue and handle drops were recorded despite the fact that there were a number of high-profile sporting events going on. The Super Bowl is perhaps the main highlight of that period and it was therefore expected to contribute significantly to the sports betting industry’s bottom line. In the neighboring state of New Jersey, this is exactly what happened with the state recording a handle of $35 million. However, this has been attributed to the fact that the sportsbooks lost a number of these bets hence the significant disparity in the state’s relative decline in February handle and revenue.
Is Online Gambling the Solution?
Sports betting has grown rapidly over the past few months but if the February revenue report is anything to go by, the industry is beginning to stagnate. As it stands, the only remedy seems to be the launch of online and mobile sports betting. This is expected to go live sometime this year. It should not be long before that happens but until then, the sportsbooks might need to go back to the drawing board and re-strategize.
