PITTSBURGH (TNS) — It was a jackpot of a year for Pennsylvania casinos.
Despite the pandemic, casinos generated $4.7 billion in total revenue — the money gamblers lost — in the 2021 calendar year, a new high, according to the state gambling control board.
That’s nearly $2.1 billion more than the $2.65 billion hauled in last year when the casinos were forced to shut down for a total of 1,473 days because of COVID-19.
But the total also is $1.3 billion more than the gambling venues produced in the pre-pandemic 2019 calendar year.
In addition, the casinos’ takings generated an estimated $1.93 billion in tax revenue for the state last year, another record. That’s $838.2 million more than the commonwealth received in 2020.
The gaming board attributed the record to “strong upticks” in nearly every sector of gambling regulated by the state — including slot machines, table games, IGaming, sports wagering, video game terminals and fantasy contests.
Slot machine revenues jumped 68.7%; table games, 83.4%; sports wagering, nearly 79.3%; fantasy contests, 38.5%; IGaming, 96.7%; and video game terminals, nearly 139.4%.
The new forms of gambling definitely fueled the record year, said Richard McGarvey, gaming board spokesman.
He noted that IGaming revenues totaled $1.1 billion last year, more than double that of 2020 and massively more than the $33.6 million in 2019, its nascent year.
Sports wagering, at $340.1 million last year, was more than quadruple that of 2019.
At the same time, there was no drop-off in revenues from slot machines or table games, as some had predicted, Mr. McGarvey said. In fact, table games hit $924.9 million last year, a record itself.
”All forms, basically speaking, are still producing lots of revenue,” Mr. McGarvey said.
The 2021 calendar year was only the third in which all of those categories of gaming were available to gamblers, one of the reasons the haul was so high. The first was 2019.
Sports wagering and fantasy contests arrived in 2018. Before that, casinos generated all of their gambling revenues from slot machines and table games.
Southwestern Pennsylvania casinos had a big year in 2021, but in some cases not nearly as good as in pre-pandemic 2019.
For example, Rivers Casino on the North Shore generated $355.5 million in revenue last year, compared to $222.9 million in 2020. But the total was nearly $36.5 million less than the $392 million it churned out in 2019.
Hollywood Casino at the Meadows in Washington County, meanwhile, saw big wins. It produced $251.6 million in revenue last year, compared to $161.4 million in 2020 and $237.9 million in 2019.
Revenues at Hempfield’s Live! Casino Pittsburgh, which opened in November 2020, soared to nearly $101.5 million last year from $4.3 million in the early months of its debut.
Lady Luck Casino in Nemacolin hit $23.7 million in revenues last year, up from $20.2 million in 2020 but considerably off the $32.9 million it generated in 2019.
