In the state of Pennsylvania, like most across the US, casinos are shutdown. Once the coronavirus began spreading, non-essential businesses like casinos were closed to try and slow the spread. For states like Pennsylvania, they still have gaming options by way of online casino and poker sites since online gambling is legal in PA. The state’s Gaming Control Board just recently released the March revenue totals, which showed the online casino market thriving while the casinos of course are hurting.
March Numbers
Overall gaming revenue was down of course for the month, with a 51% drop when compared to February. Land based casinos shut down on March 17th and will most likely remain closed for at least the remainder of this month, if not longer. For sports betting, the handle dropped by 60% with the state bringing in just over $131 million.
While the land-based venues were closed, online gaming saw a spike in participation. This is most likely due to people being home and in need of entertainment.
For online casino revenues, the total was up over 24% beating the previous high of $19.5 million from February. Slots and table games helped provide the majority of the increase at just over 19%. For the month, the online casinos earned just over $24 million.
The top operator for the month was the SugarHouse and BetRivers, operating under Rivers Philly. They managed to pull in over $6.7 million from online casino gaming. Coming in second was the FanDuel Casino, partnered with Valley Forge. They were close behind with $4.9 million in earnings.
The Hollywood Casino, Parx and PokerStars Casino managed to stick in the $2 million range. PokerStars earned the most at $2.8 million while Parx had $2.7 and Hollywood $2.6. Rounding out the operations was Unibet at $803,000 and BetAmerica with $425,878.
Online Poker Doing Well Too
Along with the rise of online casino gaming, online poker is also doing well in the state. For Pennsylvania, there is only one operator offering online poker services. PokerStars launched in November and has seen strong revenue numbers ever since. They have remained at $1.8 to $2.4 million over the past few months and for March, earned the most ever at $3,133,019. As players are at home more often than not, they are logging on and trying the online poker site.
The online poker site is currently running the Pennsylvania Spring Championship of Online Poker and is sure to see an even bigger revenue total for April as the series is offering $2 million in guaranteed prize money across several online poker tournament events.
It is expected that online gaming will only continue to grow in the state, especially if the coronavirus shutdown continues. Residents are encouraged to stay home and social distance, and it can quickly get boring at home. Online poker and casino games have provided an outlet of entertainment, particularly helping those who would normally visit the land-based casinos to play slots or table games.
