Pa. casino slots revenues ended the year under expectations
In this May 24, 2012 file photo, patrons play the slot machines at Harrah's Casino in Chester, Pa. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)
Slots revenues are down nearly across the board in Pennsylvania’s casinos for the just-ended fiscal year.
The dip comes as lawmakers work to make the commonwealth even more reliant on gambling revenues, proposing the legalization of internet gaming and, potentially, other platforms.
Richard McGarvey, with the state Gaming Control Board, noted he couldn’t make out any particular pattern for the drop. He also said he can’t say if it’ll persist into next year.
“If you look across the board, we really did see a general decline across most facilities,” he said. “There were a couple that were up, but even those weren’t up a great deal — just to a relative degree. But with that said, they were all within a few percentage points of each other for the most part.”
He also noted, the weakness doesn’t necessarily spell a problem for the industry.
“The decline wasn’t that much,” he said. “I mean we’re looking at about, out of almost $2.3 billion, about a $50 million difference to last year.”
Slots are the primary source of revenue for the commonwealth’s casinos.
The rest is from table games, which haven’t yet had their revenue numbers released.
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