Pennsylvania Online Poker Continues to Underperform; Will Interstate Compact Save It?

What happened to Pennsylvania online poker since its expansion? Prior to April 2021, Pennsylvania had one online poker operator, PokerStars PA. However, the change in April 2021 saw three more online poker operators join the market.

Usually, this should have led to more gaming and revenue collection. Unfortunately, that is often not true. In fact, in October 2023, the revenue was less than pre-expansion levels.

According to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, four online poker operators in the state generated low figures. The real money gaming operators recorded an amount lower than what PokerStars PA generated over 30 months ago when it was the sole online poker operator in the state.

Could Shared Liquidity Help?

Following Pennsylvania’s low revenue, experts now suggest shared liquidity. Evidence shows Pennsylvania’s online poker market is deteriorating instead of growing. However, most experts suggest the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement could help the state.

The compact provides shared liquidity, which is likely good for the state. Unfortunately, the Pennsylvania governor has yet to address this issue.

Governor Josh Shapiro only needs to sign the compact for the state to join the shared liquidity. This idea has been floating for a while. The pressure is much higher after West Virginia joined the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement earlier this year.

Pennsylvania Online Poker Revenue

Pennsylvania online poker rooms generated $2.3 million collectively in October 2023. This was a 1.5 percent drop from the previous month, where they generated $2.4 million.

PokerStars continued its domination in the market, generating $1.4 million. This was a drop and a second-worse revenue record. With $8,126 less, PokerStars would have hit its worst bottom.

WSOP PA came in second with over $487,000. The poker room was the only one to record a revenue increase from its previous month of about $462,000. Still, this was a 15 percent drop from last year’s October revenue of $571,000.

BetMGM Poker PA came third with around $319,000. This was the operator’s worst revenue generation this year and the second lowest since 2022 November’s figures of $306,000.

Borgata Poker PA took the last spot with only $97,000. Like PokerStars PA, this was the second-worst revenue record for Borgata. The poker room operating under the Rivers-Philadelphia license saw a 17 percent month-over-month revenue decline.

Pennsylvania’s online poker market seems to follow last year’s pattern. According to the Pennsylvania Gambling Commission Board data, online poker revenue for 2022 increased in January and dropped in February. It then went high in March before seeing a three-month drop.

In July, the revenue figures for all operators were a bit better. It remained so until October, when it hit bottom, before rising again in November and December.

The 2023 poker revenue figures seem to follow the same trend. The only problem is that the January revenue was smaller, which could suggest a bad 2024 start.

The state started January 2022 with a revenue of $3.4 million and closed the year with $2.6 million. Pennsylvania opened this year with a revenue of $2.9 million. This could suggest a minimum revenue of $2.2 million in December 2023.

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