Pennsylvania Casinos Down 1.62% to $248k in January

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Monday, February 26th, 2018 | Written by Charles Washington

In December of 2017, Pennsylvania’s casino market finished on a new high to complete a bumper year in which revenues reached a record $3.227 billion versus its previous best of $3.213 in 2016. Unfortunately, its market has had a less auspicious start to 2018, though, with business falling to $248.8 million for the month, down by 1.62% year-on-year, and by 5.55% compared to December’s haul.

Slots Down 1.39%

Pennsylvania’s slot machine market, consisting of around 26,000 machines spread out between 12 land-based casinos, has experienced a consistent revenue slide over the past 16 months. Moreover, January added further to the negative trend after business fell by 1.39% to just $177.8 million year-over-year, with that figure also lower by almost $10 million compared to the previous month. Furthermore, it marks the lowest amount posted by the state’s casinos in recent times.

Leading the slots market in terms of revenue was Parx Casino with $30.9 million, up by 2.19% versus January of 2016, followed by Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem in second spot with $23m (-3.43%), and Rivers Casino with $21m (-1.98%).

In the meantime, Harrah’s Philadelphia Casino collected $15.7m (+2.89%), Mohegan Sun Pocono took $15.5m (-3.37%), Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course posted $15.3m (-3.49%), The Meadows Casino took $14.8m (-9.73%), and the SugarHouse Casino generated revenue of $13.8m (-0.04%).

As for Pennsylvania’s smaller casinos, Mount Airy Casino Resort collected $10.6m (+0.13%), Presque Isle Downs and Casino took $7.8m (+3.20%), Valley Forge Casino Resort earned $6.7m (+1.71%), while bringing up the rear was Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin with $2 million in revenue, down by 1.85% year-on-year.

Table Games Down 2.17%

Table games have helped counteract some of the decline experienced by the the slot machine market over the past year and a half. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania’s table game offering experienced a 2.17% decline to $71 million in January compared to the same month last year, representing its first slide for 10 months.

Moreover, just four of the state’s casinos reported positive growth in January, led by Valley Forge whose revenue soared by 45.80% to $3.7 million from a year earlier. Also posting gains in their slots revenues was Rivers Casino up by 13.39% to $5.8m, Harrah’s Philadelphia up 7.38% to $5.5m, and Presque Isle Downs and Casino up 4.88% to $1.2m.

On the other side of the coin, The Meadows Casino saw its revenue plummet by 42.33%, followed by Mohegan Sun Pocono down by 15.30% to $3.1m, Parx Casino down 9.84% to $14.6m, Hollywood Casino down 7.26% to $2.9m, Lady Luck Casino Nemacolin down 4.34% to $357.8m, SugarHouse Casino down 1.56% to $10.8m, Mount Airy Casino Resort down 1.01% to $3.2m, and Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem down by 0.71% to $18.1m.

Unseasonably Cold Weather

Both Pennsylvania and New Jersey posted negative year-on-year results in January, with experts warning not to read too much into the numbers. In fact, these states experienced a woeful start to 2018 primarily because of unseasonably cold weather and a blizzard which struck the region early on in the month, depositing more than a foot of snow and resulting in business and school closures.

In fact, New Jersey’s casino market posted a 10% revenue decline in January compared to the same month a year earlier, and commenting upon the situation, James Plousis, chairman of the NJ Casino Control Commission, explained:

“What a difference a blizzard makes. When people are stuck in their homes by more than a foot of snow and temperatures are dipping into single digits, they don’t come to Atlantic City. So, it comes as no surprise that casino revenues were down last month.”

Background

Pennsylvania opened its first slot machine casino in 2006, with table games subsequently added to its gambling products in 2012. It didn’t take long for the state to then surpass neighboring New Jersey as the USA’s second largest casino market, with Pennsylvania’s market peaking at $3.16 billion in 2012.

Increased competition from casino markets in other nearby states, including Maryland, Ohio, New York and West Virginia subsequently caused a slump in Pennsylvania’s casino market which lasted until 2015 when its revenues peaked again at $3.173 billion, followed by $3.213 billion in 2016. Revenues then increased once more by 0.4% to $3.22 billion last year, representing three consecutive year’s of record highs for the Keystone State.

Over the past seven years, Pennsylvania casino market has now generated revenues of more than $3 billion per annum, with 2018 also likely to prove a bumper year after the gambling expansion that was approved in 2017.