On Friday, August 15, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board released revenue figures for the state’s online gambling industry which officially kicked off in July, and from the looks of it, the sector is on the right trajectory. According to the gaming regulator, the state’s three online gaming operators brought in a total of $812,306 between July 15 and July 31. Pennsylvania’s share of the July online gambling revenue came to a modest $326,700, most of which was due to the outrageously high 54 percent tax on online slots.
Of the three casinos, Parx Casino in Bensalem and Holly Casino at Penn National Race Course were the first ones to go live with online gaming offerings – their online gaming sites were launched on July 15. A few days after that, SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia followed suit and rolled out its own iGaming site.
The bulk of the Keystone State’s online gambling revenue was due to online slot gambling, that is, the vertical accounted for a whopping $517,712. Table games, on the other hand, brought in revenues amounting to $294,594. PlaySugerHouse, SugarHouse Casino’s online gambling operation, accounted for the largest share of the revenue. Its Rush Street Interactive-powered platform raked in $422,796 in July.
Parx Casino’s GAN-powered online casino generated $260,124 in online gaming revenue while Hollywood Casino’s IGT-powered online gaming site brought in $129,386. They are definitely off to a very good start and there is a lot of optimism regarding how things will turn out as more and more operators enter the market.
Mobile Betting and Sports Betting
While the online casinos mentioned above are accessible via mobile browsers, mobile betting is yet to pick up as expected. PlaySugarHouse already has a desktop and mobile sportsbook under its name but the same does not apply when it comes to other forms of gambling. As it stands, the biggest obstacle is a recent Apple App Store policy update that restricted operators from publishing non-native gambling apps. This effectively cuts the market by half and is certainly bound to impact the industry significantly. Fortunately, the operators are already hard at work making necessary adjustments.
Meanwhile, mobile sports betting in Pennsylvania is progressing quite well. In fact, according to the gaming control board’s July revenue report, mobile sports betting is by far the most popular. Online sports betting accounted for a whopping $38.9 million in wagers which is very impressive especially considering the fact that physical sportsbooks in the state only brought in $59.3 million