December 2024 in Pennsylvania’s online casino market was the most lucrative month in the state’s history, but online sports betting trended dramatically in the opposite direction.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board’s iGaming figures for December show a record-breaking month in which gross revenue eclipsed $223.6 million. That is a 35.5% year-over-year increase and a 11.6% rise from November 2024’s $200.5 million, which was the previous all-time record.
Of that online casino gaming revenue, online slots generated the most revenue at $164.2 million. Online table games followed with $56.9 million in revenue.
Sports betting’s freefall drags down overall gaming
However, amid a reported return of “customer-friendly outcomes,” Pennsylvania’s sports betting gross revenue plummeted 51.6% year over year, down from last December’s $98.1 million to $47.5 million last month. 99.5% of that revenue was from online wagering.
It was an even bigger month-over-month drop, 54.0%, as Pennsylvania sportsbooks had posted a monthly record $103.3 million in revenue in November.
That was despite the state’s 11 sports betting operators taking $893.4 million in wagers last month. That December 2024 sports betting handle was only slightly lower (-4.5%) than November’s all-time record of $935.5 million.
Overall, taxable gaming revenue for all kinds of retail and online gaming in December was $533.1 million, down 0.2% year-over-year despite the record online casino performance. The total in gaming taxes was $223.6 million, led by slot machines’ $102.2 million and online casino’s $98.2 million.
Sports betting produced $7.9 million of tax revenue last month.
FanDuel still king, but even top sportsbooks suffer
FanDuel was the top sportsbook in Pennsylvania in December by both handle and gross revenue, with $353.3 million and $23.8 million, respectively. However, that GGR sum was down 48.7% year over year from $46.4 million in December 2023. FanDuel suffered a nearly identical month-over-month revenue decline of 48.2%.
It was a similar story for DraftKings, whose $13.2 million in revenue from $238.5 million in handle was down 47.1% year over year and 52.5% month over month.
Overall, Pennsylvania’s sportsbooks had a hold of just 5.3% last month. Fanatics‘ 7.4% was the best, ahead of FanDuel’s 6.7% and DraftKings’ 5.5%, and yielded the third-highest GGR total of $3.4 million from $66.2 million in bets.
Some sportsbooks had a particularly rough month. BetMGM, Caesars, BetRivers and ESPN Bet all had a hold of 2.8% or less, with ESPN Bet recording revenue of just $794,626 from a hold of 1.8%. After promotional credits, the PENN-owned operator lost $470,150 last month in Pennsylvania.
Despite the desperate December and October’s sportsbook struggles, Pennsylvania sportsbooks saw record betting activity and record gross revenue in the full 2024 calendar year. Handle was $8.4 billion and GGR was $778.4 million, up 10.5% and 13.3% year over year.
