On this week’s Radio PA Roundtable, we wrap up the latest winter storm for Pennsylvania and hear from a Pennsylvania athlete in Sochi for the Winter Olympics. Also, state budget hearings are underway.
Radio PA Roundtable is a 30-minute program featuring in-depth reporting, commentary and analysis on the top news stories of the week.
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April was another “off” month for slot machine revenue in Pennsylvania. Revenue from slots play at the state’s 11 casinos was down 4% compared to the same month last year.
The only bright spot in the April report was the Valley Forge Resort Casino, which posted a nearly 34% increase. Its first full month of operation was in April of 2012.
Doug Harbach of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board says the state is seeing the impact of additional competition from Ohio and Maryland. But he adds that Pennsylvania still has room for expansion. Lady Luck at Nemacolin, a resort casino, is scheduled to open this summer
Pennsylvania is second only to Nevada in total gaming revenues.
Harbach says Presque Isle Downs and Casino in Erie has been feeling the pressure from Cleveland, Ohio and posted another double-digit decline. Slots play at Presque Isle was off by nearly 16% compared to April of last year.
Harbach adds that despite the decline in revenue, the board’s primary responsibility is to regulate the industry.
Although slot machine revenue declined last month at Pennsylvania’s casinos, table games posted a healthy month.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board says table games generated the highest monthly amount to date in March, 9% higher than the same month last year. Last March had set the previous record for table games revenue.
The increase helped balance the drop in slots revenue, pushing overall gross revenue from gaming 1% higher than March of 2012. The numbers were boosted by the Valley Forge Casino, which was only operating a few days during the same month last year as it opened in late March.
Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem had the highest amount of table games play and the biggest increase.
Slot machine revenue rose in Pennsylvania last year for a sixth consecutive year. There was a 2.7% increase in gross revenue from slot machine gaming in 2012. The numbers were boosted in part by the opening of the Valley Forge Resort Casino. Six of the existing casinos posted increases for the year, while four saw declines in slots play.
SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia posted the biggest gain, increasing slots play by more than 11% over the previous year. Presque Isle Downs and Casino saw the biggest decline at more than 9%.
Doug Harbach, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board says fluctuations are expected, especially as gaming expands in neighboring states. Gaming is expanding in Ohio and Maryland. But Pennsylvania’s newest resort casino is expected to open later this year in Fayette County.
Tax revenue generated by the play of slots topped 1.3 billion dollars last year. Pennsylvania’s first casino opened in November of 2006.
The Board also posted monthly slot machine revenue for December. There was a decrease of 2% for the month compared to December of 2011.
The casino industry in Pennsylvania employs more than 16 thousand people, while providing funds for property tax relief, the horse racing industry, economic development and community-based projects.
Numbers for table games won’t be out until later this month.
Slot machine gross revenue for the month of October was more than $188-million dollars across the state’s 11 casinos. That’s down 4.4% when compared to October 2011 figures. When comparing just those ten casinos operating year-to-year, the drop becomes even sharper; 6.5%.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) cites both the severe weather that marked the final week of the month and the fact that October 2012 had just four Saturdays, compared to five of the prime gambling days in October of last year.
Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem was the only casino to post gains in October (2.55%). Presque Isle in Erie saw the sharpest declines (-21.89%).
The state’s 11th casino, the Valley Forge Casino Resort, opened in March of 2012.
May was a good month for table games overall in Pennsylvania, but the numbers were helped by the newest casino.
The state Gaming Control Board is reporting a 7.4% increase in table games revenue for May. There were 140 new tables operating compared to May of last year, and 50 of them at the newest facility, the Valley Forge Casino Resort.
Revenues were up at four of the existing casinos, but down at six others. The Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem saw the biggest increase.
Overall, table games provided over 55.2 million dollars in gross revenue.
In a report released earlier this month, slots revenue was also up for May, by 3.4%, and those numbers too were helped by the addition of Valley Forge, which opened in late March.
All 10 casinos in Pennsylvania saw an increase in slots revenue for the month of December compared to last year. The biggest boost came for the newest casino. Philadelphia’s SugarHouse saw a 63% jump. Overall, the casinos combined for a nearly 14% increase.
Gaming Control Board spokesman Doug Harbach says the play at slots machines in December generated over 108 million dollars in tax revenue, even with fewer slot machines operating. Gaming Board officials credit mild weather, and also think table games may be bringing more people into the casinos, translating into more play at the slot machines as well.
Table games revenue numbers for December are not available yet.
The newest casino, the first resort hotel casino in Valley Forge, is scheduled to come on line this spring.
The revoked Foxwoods casino license would be re-bid via a statewide public auction, under legislation penned by House Gaming Oversight Committee chairman Curt Schroder (R-Chester). HB 65 was written to maximize state revenues, and would set the minimum bid for the casino license at $66.5-million dollars. The original category 2 licenses were sold for $50-million dollars.
The committee voted 21 to 4 in favor of Schroder’s bill, today. It now heads to the House floor. Meanwhile, the Foxwoods developers have appealed the revocation of their license in Commonwealth Court.
The Foxwoods casino project was awarded its category 2 casino license in December of 2006. After years of delays and financing woes, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board voted to revoke the Foxwoods license in December 2010. Under current law, if the Foxwoods license is awarded to another casino developer it must stay within the City of Philadelphia.
Earlier this fall, Pennsylvania Treasurer Rob McCord told a Senate committee that South York and Reading were the two alternative locations that would have the biggest impact on net revenues. McCord’s analysis of PA’s gaming markets finds that a western Philadelphia casino site could generate the 5th greatest gain to statewide gaming revenues. The site of the proposed Foxwoods site checked in at number nine on that list.
Table games play in Pennsylvania hit a new high mark last month. Gross revenue produced by table games at the state’s 10 casinos topped 56 million dollars in July; the highest level since March. Table games, which are taxed at a lower rate than slots due to the manpower required, brought in more than 9 million dollars in tax revenue in July.
Richard McGarvey, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, says employment has continued to increase at the casinos since table games began. He says over the last year, 47 hundred additional jobs have been created at the casinos. He says table games take more people, including dealers and other staff, to deal with the extra demand. McGarvey says casinos are still adding tables and employees.
McGarvey says at the beginning of table games, they were seeing gross revenue in the 30 million dollar range and now it’s up to the 50 million dollar range. He says casinos are still attracting customers and learning what games people like to play.
McGarvey also says table games have not affected slots negatively, he says slots play has increased about 1 or 2% since table games began.
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.