Pennsylvania is following in the footsteps of New Jersey since legalizing online sports-betting a few months back.
Total bets taken in September sky-rocketed by a record 144% to $194.5m with 81% of it coming via online betting.
And along with this sharp improvement in handle, the State’s Gaming Control Board reported, state tax revenue more than doubled.
In a nutshell, the $194.5m placed in bets in September translated into $14.9 million in revenue and $5.3m in tax.
Against this, in August $109m was placed in bets in Pennsylvania, $6.1m was won in revenue while $2.2 million went to the taxman.
Clearly the start of the NFL football season had a major impact on hoisting its monthly betting handle so sharply. However, there’s no getting away from it; online betting has had most to do with its rapid growth.
SugarHouse, FanDuel and Parx were first
PlaySugerHouse Casino, FanDuel (operating out of Valley Forge Casino), and Parx Casino were the first to launch online sports books in Pennsylvania. That was in August when Pennsylvania’s handle first began escalating sharply
They were joined online in September by the new Bet Rivers sportsbook and by the Mount Airy Casino.
And of its $14.9m in revenue, $9.3m or 81% came via online sports-bets, much of it on smart phones.
That was up from the 76% achieved online in August. And it propelled Pennsylvania closer to the 84% US pacesetter New Jersey achieved in the past few months.
It will also come as a sobering lesson to procrastinators like New York. It has legalized land-based, in-person betting, but its Governor is hedging over the online version.
Mind you, Pennsylvania still has some way to go if it is to catch the US’s current sports-betting’s runaway leaders.
The Garden state’s 17 online sportsbooks helped haul in total handle in September of $445.6m. That was 51.8% up on Augusts’ $293.6m and shows NJ’s fortunes are still climbing
