The NFL season certainly jacked up sports betting revenue in the state of Pennsylvania for the month of September. According to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, a record $194.5 million was wagered at nine casinos and two off-track betting sites.
With the start of the NFL season, The Keystone State has now experienced all sorts of success. At a handle of almost $200 million, bettors all over the state – from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh – are now having the same type of enjoyment that only a few others in the United States have.
Back in July, the handle was at $59.3 million, and at $109 million in August, with revenue for both months being $5 million in July and $9.9 million in August. With this type of increasing handle, what’s stopping Pennsylvania from taking over the world now? Well, New Jersey and Nevada, of course.
For the sake of Pennsylvania, they really don’t have to worry about New Jersey and New York residents nowadays. A Supreme Court ruling made all types of sports betting legal for New Jersey back in June 2018, but Pennsylvania wasn’t too far behind in getting that legalization.
Numbers from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board show that sports bets went all the way up to $109 million in August, which was an 84 percent increase over the month of July. New Jersey, in comparison, set an unbelievable state-record number of $446 million in bets handled.
“Every Saturday and Sunday this fall, people are driving from Pennsylvania into New Jersey and sitting at our rest stops on their mobile phones and making bets, then heading back home,” said Chris Christie, former Governor of New Jersey.
Different Numbers
Neighboring New Jersey has a nearly 10 percent tax on brick-and-mortar sports revenue and a 13 percent tax on mobile and online sports betting revenue. However, the state of Pennsylvania takes a whopping 36 percent of revenue from its casinos.
FanDuel Sportsbook has shown to be the leader in the Pennsylvania market with over $89 million in total handle. Most of that money comes in from FanDuel’s mobile sports betting app. In terms of money generated for the state of Pennsylvania, FanDuel Sportsbook has more than a third of the sports betting revenue at $5.1 million.
“Let’s take a state that has really screwed it up, like Pennsylvania. And I mean, a rolling dumpster fire is sports gaming in Pennsylvania. They did all wrong things: a ridiculously high tax rate, a ridiculously high barrier of entry,” said Christie.
Pennsylvania records are certainly going to shoot up, considering the recent ruling on giving them legal mobile sports betting – not to mention, it is football season. In previous months, residents of The Keystone State weren’t able to place wagers via mobile applications and were restricted to only brick-and-mortar locations.
