Monthly Slots Revenue Hits New High in Pennsylvania
July was the best month so far for slots revenues in Pennsylvania. The state’s newest casino gets much of the credit. If you take away the Sugar House Casino, which opened in September 2010, slots revenues for the 9 other casinos in Pennsylvania were actually down 3.5% last month. With the Philadelphia casino added, July slot machine revenue was the single highest month to date, up almost 3.5% over last July.
Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board spokesman Doug Harbach says the Sugar House Casino continues to improve its numbers since coming on line last year, and that has boosted numbers across the state. July’s total slots revenue was over $218 million, which translates to over $118 million in tax revenue.
Six of the other nine casinos were down compared to July 2010, and only three reported increases in slots revenue for the month. Harrah’s Chester Casino and Parx Casino, those closest to the new Sugar House Casino, saw the biggest declines in revenue from slots compared to last July. Harrah’s was down 16.2% and Parx was off 9.2% from the previous July. Harbach says some impact was expected as the market continued to mature.
Meanwhile, Harbach says they’re not seeing much, if any impact from the two casinos that have opened in Maryland. He says that market is still growing. One casino is in a county bordering Pennsylvania, Cecil County. The other is near the Ocean City resort area.
Harbach says revenues are not the only thing going up at Pennsylvania’s casinos. He says they’ve seen an uptick in the number of jobs at the casinos with the continued growth of revenue.
Table games revenue figures are released separately.
