2019 was a record year for gaming in Pennsylvania. Despite of the continuous revenue upturn of brick-and-mortar casinos, growth largely came from the introduction of sports betting and online gambling, as well as gains by the daily fantasy sports industry.
Though the vast majority of gambling money is still made in traditional casinos, gambling online is slowly but surely taking a piece of the pie with less than 8% of total state gambling revenue. The industry which includes internet slots, table games, poker, sports betting and fantasy sports made about $22.4 million in December of 2019.
According to the data from the gaming control board, in 2019, gamblers spent more that $3.4 billion in Pennsylvania which is largely driven by the rise in online gambling. That’s a 4.5% increase over the previous year!
At the beginning of the year, there were only three retail sportsbooks and no online options. As of January 2020, there are eight online and 12 retail sportsbooks. Grossing $8.4 million in December 2019, Online Sportsbooks have dominated the state’s sports betting industry in comparison to $3 million for sportsbooks located in land base casinos. Judging by the numbers, sports bettors in PA prefer to place bets on their phones and computers as a staggering 87% of wagers in the state are placed on PA online betting apps.
PokerStars PA, the state’s first legal real money poker website launched in November of 2019, already made $2.5 million in December, according to the latest figures from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. The site has an average of about 400 coinciding players over the last week of the year.
Giving the Pennsylvanians an option to play without driving to the casino, industry analyst and gambling enthusiast are predicting the rapid growth of the industry this year.
Reaching and appealing to a wider market, the industry is just hitting the tip of the iceberg.