COVID-19 ravished the United States’ booming bricks-and-mortar casino economy as Las Vegas was forced to shut its doors.
This led to online casinos throwing open their doors and trying their best to entertain gamblers from across the country.
For the first time since the COVID-19 online casino boost of 2020, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) announced that slot wagers in the state topped $1 billion during May.
Online casinos in Pennsylvania report more than $1 billion in slot wagering for May
Growing While Others Struggled
Only three states reported generating a revenue from online casino activity, those being Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
In previous months, Pennsylvania generated a massive amount of slot wagers, gathering $778 million in April alone.
This huge figure is a testament to the regulations in place for Pennsylvanian online casinos, giving players a great choice of games from stylish online casinos – an area in which other online casinos in the country struggled.
Sportsbooks Back on the Rise
With most sporting leagues around the world shut down, sportsbooks had to turn to the few horse races that were still operating and eSports.
The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGBC) approved four additional leagues back in April, giving the relatively new sport a huge boost.
But now, sporting events around the world are starting to resume, with the English Premier league back in action for a few weeks now.
It won’t be long before we see the likes of the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB returning to our screens and sportsbooks.
In May, sportsbooks from Pennsylvania managed to rake in more than $77 million in wagers, a huge relief for sportsbooks in the state.
Bricks-and-Mortar Casinos Opening Their Doors
Pennsylvania is taking a rather unusual approach to the reopening of bricks-and-mortar casinos.
Bricks-and-mortar casinos in Pennsylvania can open as normal once the COVID-19 state in a bricks-and-mortar casinos’ county is green.
It’s expected that 15 bricks-and-mortar casinos will be open by the end of next week, a stark contrast to other casino states.
For example, in Las Vegas bricks-and-mortar casinos can only open following a strict set of guidelines that must be adhered to before a casino can open for business.
Only two players are allowed per bank of slots, there will be no blackjack and social distancing must be observed at Roulette tables.
On top of this, casinos can only reopen at half capacity, seriously putting a crimp in cashflow for bricks-and-mortar casinos.
That being said, one lucky player has already taken Caesars Palace for more than $670,000 in a jackpot win!
Normal Service Has Resumed
The Pennsylvanian casino scene appears to be all back to normal, bar the counties that have yet to reach a green COVID-19 status.
This is great news for the lawmakers in the state as they will have extra funds rolling in to help with the economic fallout from COVID-19.
The extra income and revenue generated by the Pennsylvanian casino industry will come in handy when patching up the battered state and preparing for a potential second wave of the virus like we’re seeing across Asia.
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