Pennsylvania’s casinos logged a record .21 billion in combined slot and table-game gross revenue for 2016, according to results posted by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board last week.
The $3.21 billion is 1.25 percent higher than in 2015, when combined gross revenue totaled $3.17 billion, the previous record. It also marks the sixth straight calendar year that the combined revenue has topped $3 billion. Table games were legalized in 2010.
Although slot machine revenue dipped slightly last year, table game revenue—at $853.2 million, or 5.6 percent more than 2015 — set a record as well, propelling overall earnings to the new high.
“Tables really were the driver,” said Richard McGarvey, a gaming board spokesman.
“Tables continue to expand. Slots revenue the last couple of years has been flat to slightly down. Tables are clearly still expanding. More people are playing them.”
Revenue from poker, blackjack and other table games at Pennsylvania casinos rose 5.6 percent last year, to $853.24 million. The leader was Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, which had $230.2 million in table games revenue, up 7 percent. Parx Casino in Bensalem was second, with $161.8 million in revenue, up 12 percent.
The new record — representing the amount that gamblers lost playing slot machines and table games — translated into nearly $1.4 billion in tax revenue, the majority of which goes for property tax relief.
