Pa. Slots Revenue Drops from July to August

Compared to the previous month, slots revenues were down in August – the first full month of table games at Pennsylvania casinos.

KYW's Tony Romeo reports that the Gaming Control Board says gross revenue from slot machines in August was $197 million dollars, down $14 million from July when table games were running only part of the month, but still up $18 million from June.

Year to year, comparing just the eight casinos in operation for the entire month of August 2009, slots revenue was up a modest 2.6-percent last month. The bottom line, says board spokesman Richard McGarvey, is that it's still too soon to assess the impact of table games:

"Yeah, again, I think it's too early to start drawing conclusions from that."

But it should be noted that the board chairman last month, offering a preliminary assessment of the possible impact of table games, noted that The Meadows casino had a 19-percent increase in slots revenues from June to July. The Meadows, however, was down almost 6-percent from July to August.

Because they take longer to tabulate, table game revenues for August will not be available until later this month.

(file photo)