The Pennsylvania gambling expansion law passed largely because the state desperately needed a new source of tax revenue. One of the biggest sources of that revenue was upfront licensing fees for all the new types of gambling.

Even with the potential for big returns, the first state budget after expansion only expected $100 million from online gambling. That is a figure Pennsylvania surpassed after the first mini-casino auction.

Gambling streams are now blossoming in the Commonwealth, bringing in significant revenue for the state and local entities. How much so far?

Last updated: Oct. 16, 2020

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How does that number break down? Let’s look at how much each category brought in:

Sports betting revenue starts rolling in

Sports betting in PA started out with retail only. Since the addition of online sportsbooks, revenue has soared. The majority of sports wagering in PA now happens online, and the state broke handle records every month during the 2019/2020 NFL season.

Consequently, the state’s tax revenue has experienced large gains since online betting was added to the mix.

Here is a look at the tax revenue (state and local) from sports betting so far:

September 2020: $2,257,158
August 2020: $6,578,667
July 2020: $2,933,093
June 2020: $2,397,657
May 2020: $1,738,436
April 2020: $1,038,049
March 2020: $2,480,132
February 2020: $1,700,011
January 2020: $8,222,829
December 2019: $4,094,893
November 2019: $5,299,449
October 2019: $5,381,370
September 2019: $5,062,216
August 2019: $2,201,406
July 2019: $1,026,769
June 2019: $979,302
May 2019: $1,030,267
April 2019: $1,519,733
March 2019: $1,986,962
February 2019: $700,853.95
January 2019: $938,597.00
December 2018: $722,356.00
November 2018: $183,238.77

Online casino taxes now a PA revenue stream

With the launch of online casino sites, the state got another tax revenue stream. In 2020, online casino proved a vital revenue source for PA with land-based casinos and major sports affected by pandemic precautions and closures. With online slots raking 54% in taxes on revenue, that means the state gets even more than the site when it comes to profit.

Table games provide a good chunk as well, with a 16% taxation rate (same as online poker).

Here is a look at slot and table games breakdown by month:

September 2020
Slot tax: $21,565,077
Table games tax: $2,356,890
Total online casino tax: $23,921,967

August 2020
Slot tax: $21,400,525
Table games tax: $2,173,236
Total online casino tax: $23,573,761

July 2020
Slot tax: $21,300,706
Table games tax: $1,907,184
Total online casino tax: $23,207,890

June 2020
Slot tax: $19,858,788
Table games tax: $1,606,208
Total online casino tax: $21,464,996

May 2020
Slot tax: $21,259,600
Table games tax: $1,987,122
Total online casino tax: $23,246,722

April 2020
Slot tax: $14,755,476
Table games tax: $1,678,339
Total online casino tax: $16,433,816

March 2020
Slot tax: $6,669,348
Table games tax: $1,405,145
Total online casino tax: $8,074,493

February 2020
Slot tax: $5,202,349
Table games tax: $1,284,237
Total online casino tax: $6,486,586

January 2020
Slot tax: $3,883,784
Table games tax: $737,293
Total online casino tax: $4,621,067

December 2019
Slot tax: $3,008,116
Table games tax: $412,956
Total online casino tax: $3,421,072

November 2019
Slot tax: $2,750,645
Table games tax: $415,445
Total online casino tax: $3,166,090

October 2019
Slot tax: $2,147,692
Table games tax: $154,517
Total online casino tax: $2,302,209

September 2019
Slot tax: $1,746,962
Table games tax:$144,039
Total online casino tax: $1,891,001

August 2019
Slot tax: $1,643,397
Table games tax: $191,601
Total online casino tax: $1,835,058

July 2019
Slot tax: $279,564
Table games tax: $47,135
Total online casino tax: $326,700

Online poker joins online slots and table games

Mount Airy launched the first online poker room with PokerStars PA going live Nov. 5, 2019. So far, it is the only operator live in the state, though more operators are expected to join the market in the coming months.

Here is a look at revenue and tax revenue by month for online poker in PA, plus total tax revenue to date.

September 2020
Online poker revenue: $2,376,045
Online poker tax: $380,167

August 2020
Online poker revenue: $2,729,199
Online poker tax: $436,672

July 2020
Online poker revenue: $2,986,498
Online poker tax: $477,840

June 2020
Online poker revenue: $3,240,917
Online poker tax: $509,590

May 2020
Online poker revenue: $4,596,418
Online poker tax: $729,851

April 2020
Online poker revenue: $5,253,304
Online poker tax: $837,550

March 2020
Online poker revenue: $3,133,019
Online poker tax: $500,384

February 2020
Online poker revenue: $1,830,356
Online poker tax: $290,752

January 2020
Online poker revenue: $2,157,266
Online poker tax: $345,162

December 2019
Online poker revenue: $2,473,137
Online poker tax: $395,702

November 2019
Online poker revenue: $1,965,494
Online poker tax: $314,479

Mini-casino auction profits

VGT tax revenue

September 2020: $1,239,548
August 2020: $895,509
July 2020: $1,075,974
June 2020: $560,261
May 2020: $0
April 2020: $0
March 2020: $485,682
February 2020: $697,806
January 2020: $579,914
December 2019: $457,159
November 2019: $342,830
October 2019: $242,522
August/September 2019: $168,849

Lottery expansion nears $45 million in revenue in first year-plus

PA Lottery was part of the gambling expansion bill as well. The laws allowed for the introduction of three new elements of lottery offerings. Those are:

• Virtual sports

Keno rolled out May 1, 2018, followed by online lottery games on May 22, 2018. Xpress Sports, the virtual sports element, went live in August.

Based on numbers provided by the PA Lottery in its annual fiscal reports, profits from each of the following game types from launch through July 2019 were as follows:

Online lottery: $32.96 million
Keno and virtuals: $11.62 million

Draw tickets such as Mega Millions and Powerball are now available for purchase online through the iLottery too, as of January 2020. In May, 2020 the PA lottery reported that online sales had crossed $1 billion since launching less than two years prior. Exact revenue figures for the fiscal year are forthcoming.

Daily fantasy sports revenue

While daily fantasy sports (DFS) was not explicitly illegal in Pennsylvania, the 2017 gambling expansion regulated the industry. With that regulation comes taxation and licensing fees.

Ten fantasy sports operators needed to each pay a $50,000 licensing fee. Their revenue is taxed at a rate of 15 percent. Here is a look at each month’s tax revenue from DFS as well as the total amount of tax revenue to date:

• September 2020: $485,124
• August 2020: $320,174
• July 2020: $138,861
• June 2020: $97,087
• May 2020: $47,826
• April 2020: $25,088
• March 2020: $108,591
• February 2020: $255,366
• January 2020: $309,716
• December 2019: $515,343
• November 2019: $447,174
• October 2019: $489,654
• September 2019: $439,357
• August 2019: $208,295
• July 2019: $186,730
• June 2019: $238,847
• May 2019: $270,458
• April 2019: $277,883
• March 2019: $245,226.70
• February 2019: $244,376.75
• January 2019: $317,475
• December 2018: $429,075.51
• November 2018: $486,174.15
• October 2018: $435,429.45
• September 2018: $320,057.10
• August 2018: $141,543.03
• July 2018: $131,727.75
• June 2018: $152,679.34
• May 2018: $199,755.94

Lady Luck Nemacolin lone sports betting holdout

In August 2018 Pennsylvania finally got its first official sports betting applicant. Penn Nationalfiled its petition, breaking the weeks of inactivity that had many worrying that nobody would bite.

A total of 12 of the 13 eligible casinos submitted applications for the $10 million license. The lone holdout is Lady Luck Nemacolin.

There are currently 12 retail sportsbooks spread across the state (with Oaks now permanently closed), and double-digit online sports betting apps.

Interactive gaming petitions generate $94 million

The 90-day window for PA casinos to apply for $10 million comprehensive interactive gaming petitions opened in mid-May, 2019. For the first 85 days, there was no news — a panic set in that there might be few or no applicants.

In the end, though, a majority of the 13 casinos ponied up the fee, which allows them to offer online peer-to-peer games like poker, online slots, and online table games. The seven casinos who filed for petitions and received approval are:

Once the all-in-one license application period ended, PA casinos could still purchase a la ca carte licenses for each of the three categories. Presque Isle Downs owner Churchill Downs spent $8 million applying for online poker and online slots. In an unusual move, Mohegan Sun Pocono paid a $2 million premium to apply for all three licenses for $12 million.

Rivers Pittsburgh surprisingly rescinded its interactive application. Rush Street Gaming owns both Rivers casinos (and the SugarHouse brand), so the Rivers Philadelphia license supports online casino products for both venues. That opens up three more licenses, bringing the total to 10.

Stadium Casino rescinded its peer-to-peer application but retained its online slots and table games licenses so that it would pay $8 million in licensing fees.

Mohegan Sun Pocono informed PGCB that it would not seek to offer online poker either, so it too had to pay $8 million.

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The Meadows and Lady Luck Nemacolin opted not to apply for any interactive gaming licenses. The Meadows is owned by Penn National, who already applied for a comprehensive license. Lady Luck Nemacolin is managed by Churchill Downs now, and defers to Presque Isle on the online gaming front.

Where does that leave these leftover licenses? The next step was to open up the applications to entities outside of Pennsylvania. The two applicants in that category were MGM Resorts and Golden Nugget Atlantic City. MGM is approved to offer casino, sports betting, and online poker – which will be under the partypoker brand. Golden Nugget only applied for online casino and sports betting.

Law generates $51 million for PA in a matter of hours

In 2017, the state received two payments in the days immediately following the passage of the law. One was a $1 million payment from Valley Forge Casino to remove the amenity fee requirement on the Category 3 property. The other was a $50 million payment by Stadium Casino LLC for its Category 2 casino license. The group is in the process of building a casino in the Stadium Park area of Philadelphia.

In June of 2018, the Stadium Casino project paid the state an additional $24,750,000 for the right to offer table games at the property when it opens, bringing the total licensing brought in from the group to $74.75 million.

Other sources of revenue from the law include:

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On Oct. 31, Valley Forge also took advantage of another change in the law. For $2.5 million, the resort casinos could up the number of slot machines on property. After a year of gaming revenue growth, the casino decided it was time to expand.

After nearly a year and a half of the law being in effect, Lady Luck Nemacolin elected to pay the $1 million to eliminate its $10 Category 3 amenity fee, leaving the state with no more casinos charging for entry.

The Pennsylvania Constitution requires that taxes be uniform: “All taxes shall be uniform, upon the same class of subjects, within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax, and shall be levied and collected under general laws.” Pa. Const. art. VIII, § 1. While this provision sounds similar to the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, in practice, it is much more robust.

On September 28, 2016, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the local share assessment imposed under Section 1403 of the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act violated the uniformity clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution because casinos were taxed differently based upon the amount of their gross revenue. Mount Airy #1 LLC v. Pennsylvania Dep’t of Rev., No. 34 EM 2015, 2016 Pa. LEXIS 2174, *3-*4 (Pa. Sept. 28, 2016).

Section 1403(b) of the Gaming Act imposes on each casino “a daily tax of 34% from its daily gross terminal revenue from the slot machines in operation at its facility and a local share assessment as provided in subsection (c).” 42 Pa. C.S.A. § 1403(b). Philadelphia has unique provisions governing its Local Share Assessment because it is both a city and a county. All other counties receive revenue under a system that provides for a county local share, and a municipal local share. 42 Pa. C.S.A. § 1403(c)(2) (providing county local share), (3) (providing municipal local share).

The municipal local share formula under the statute differentiates between casinos located outside of Philadelphia based upon their gross terminal revenue or GTR for the year: “[T]he Gaming Act provides that non-Philadelphia casinos with GTR below $500 million must pay a lump sum of $10 million municipal local share assessment. Yet for non-Philadelphia casinos with GTR greater than $500 million, the municipal local share assessment is 2% of the casino’s GTR.” Mount Airy, 2016 Pa. LEXIS 2174 at *11.

The Supreme Court began its analysis by noting that it had previously struck down similar taxes. The court observed that an inheritance tax had been struck down in 1899 because it exempted the first $5,000 of property from tax, which meant that most estates paid no tax at all. Id. at *11-*12 (citing Cope’s Estate, 191 Pa. 1, 43 A. 79, 81 (1899)). Next, the court noted that it had invalidated a graduated income tax because it was not uniform. Id. at *12-*13 (citing Kelley v. Kalodner, 320 Pa. 180, 181 A. 598, (1935)). The Mount Airy Court then noted that income-based classifications had been held to violate the uniformity requirement in other tax cases. Id. at *13-*14 (citing Sauslbury v. Bethlehem Steel Co., 413 Pa. 316, 196 A.2d 664 (1964), and Amidon v. Kane, 444 Pa. 38, 279 A.2d 53, 64 (1971)).

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In the Court’s view, the municipal local share was “a variable-rate tax” that applied “one rate for non-Philadelphia casinos with GTR below $500 million and another for non-Philadelphia casinos with GTR greater than $500 million.” Id. at *14. The fact that casinos paid different rates based on their revenues was dispositive. Id. at *14-*15.

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Turning to the appropriate remedy, the majority concluded that both the local municipal share and the local county share provisions had to be severed from the Gaming Act because they were overlapping and interdependent components of a single tax. Id. at *23-*24. Justice Todd, disagreed with the majority’s severance decision, indicating that she would have only severed the provisions governing the local municipal share. Id. at *28-*36 (Todd, J. concurring and dissenting). In contrast, Chief Justice Saylor took issue with the determination that the local share assessment was unconstitutional, indicating that the record required further development. Id. at *36-*45 (Saylor, C.J. concurring and dissenting).

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Mount Airy suggests that the court remains receptive to uniformity challenges in tax cases.