The COVID-19 outbreak has seen something that has never happened in the history of the casino industry in the States of America. The closure of all gaming activity in casinos across the land has left several states wondering what the impact will be from the strangulation of revenues. In one state, however, that abrupt shutoff of the gambling spigot could be alleviated by its online gaming industry.
Pennsylvania Showing Strong Online Activity
With the doors closed on the casinos across the state, Pennsylvania has seen an increase in the activity in its online arena. For one operation in particular, Rush Street Interactive, the increases in the Keystone State have been significant. “On BetRivers.com, we are seeing perhaps four or five times as many new customers signing up compared to what we would expect,” Rush Street Interactive’s Chief Operating Officer Mattias Stetz stated to Steve Bittenbender of TheCenterSquare.com.
February’s online numbers, while definitely a bit short of what “live” numbers would be, have to be encouraging for Pennsylvania officials. In the online action, $254.7 million was wagered on online sites, generating gross revenues of $9.6 million for the seven active casinos in the market. That earned the state $3.3 million in tax revenues and picked up $675,000 for local municipalities. Table games, including poker, saw $448.8 million wagered and gross revenues of $8 million for Pennsylvania’s tax man. Of that gross, $3.1 million went to the state and $160,000 to local governments.
No Compacts At This Time
Because the Pennsylvania industry is just beginning to get its balance, there doesn’t seem to be an interest in compacting with any of the other states who have online casino gaming or poker. At this time, PokerStars is the only poker operation in the commonwealth, with WSOP/888 driven systems being the only operations that make up the current compact system between New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware. “While it could happen, that is not something that we could predict in regard to a time frame before the COVID-19 matter, so certainly not something on any radar right now,” Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board Director of Communications Doug Harbach said in an interview.
Getting Pennsylvania on board with the compact between Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware – not to mention the new outlets in Michigan and West Virginia – would have a seismic effect regarding online gaming in the U. S. The compact between the “original three” (which have been in operation since 2013) only encompasses about 12 million people and is restricted to just online poker. If the new trio of states are welcomed into the fold, that would add more than 24.5 million potential customers to the pool, more than two times what exists right now.
According to PokerScout.com, PokerStars PA is the 14th ranked online poker operation in the world, bringing in a seven-day average of 800 cash game players (they are peaking around 3000 players overall during prime time). Contrast this with the numbers from the only operation that currently can operate in the compacted states, WSOP/888, which is in 21st place in the overall PokerScout rankings with a seven day average of 500 players (the other New Jersey sites, which are operated by partypoker and PokerStars, are struggling to remain relevant with PokerStars NJ bringing 260 players and partypoker NJ 130 players). A six-state compact would thusly see perhaps a 1500 player average, which would place a U. S.-centric operation in the Top Ten of PokerScout’s rankings.
As it has only been a couple of weeks since the shutdown of casino operations, it remains to be seen how much people head to the virtual gambling halls to scratch their competitive urges. But the numbers are showing that people are heading to the virtual casinos across the board and that it is a source of revenues for the gaming companies and the states in difficult times.
