Northeastern Pa. casinos earn more from slots in 2011
January 16, 2012
By Howard Frank Published: 2:00 AM – 01/15/12
Northeastern Pennsylvania casinos were the biggest winners among the state’s slot machine operators in 2011.
The three casinos — Mohegan Sun, Sands Bethlehem and Mount Airy — all showed increases in slots revenues last year, according to recently released figures by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
Meanwhile, all but one of the six casinos outside northeastern Pennsylvania operating more than a year showed declines in revenues. That comes on the heels of a report that Atlantic City’s casinos took in less money in 2011, as well as the four preceding years.
Receipts for Pa. casinos in 2011.
Sands: $271.0M, 4.7% growth
Mohegan Sun: $232.8M, 3.6% growth
Mount Airy: $145.8M, 1.4% growth
Source: Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board
Pennsylvania was a major source of customers for Atlantic City before the introduction of casinos here. Now some Pennsylvanians go to state casinos instead of trekking to Atlantic City, said Holly Wetzel, vice president of communications for the American Gaming Association.
Pennsylvania casinos have been operating since 2006, the year Atlantic City’s decline began. That’s when Mohegan Sun in Wilkes-Barre opened, followed by Mount Airy Casino Resort in 2007 in Paradise Township and the Sands Bethlehem in 2009.
Mount Airy and Sands have aggressively marketed to the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, with advertising blitzes and chartered bus trips.
Table games revenues for December 2011 won’t be reported until next week. But it’s been a good run in the state so far.
“Pennsylvania continues to be an extremely strong gaming market across all the 22 commercial casino states we monitor,” Wetzel said. “Pennsylvania is significantly ahead of any other state in terms of revenue growth of the numbers we’ve received so far. Obviously part of the reason for the big jump is SugarHouse is having its first full year this year.”
Overall, the state’s slots revenues fell by about 1 percent in 2011 when excluding SugarHouse in Philadelphia, which opened in 2010. With SugarHouse, slots revenues jumped by 5.8 percent.
Meanwhile, the three northeastern casinos’ slots revenues grew an average of 3.5 percent, while the other six lost an average of 3.7 percent. SugarHouse was not used in this comparison.
Overall, Pittsburgh’s Rivers Casino led the state with a 13.9 percent increase in slots revenues to $275.6 million in 2011.
The Sands Bethlehem was the area’s strongest performer, with $271 million in slots revenues in 2011, an increase of 4.7 percent for the year. Mohegan Sun was second with about $233 million in revenues, 3.6 percent higher than 2010. Mount Airy had about $146 million in slots revenues, a 1.4 percent increase over 2010.
The Associated Press contributed to the report.
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