Not electionwise but with regard to Penn National Gaming‘s racino in Charles Town, W.V., and its Hollywood Casino in Pennsylvania. The introduction of table games is buoying revenues nicely. The overall result in especially impressive in Charles Town. Not only did table games rake in nearly $6 million but slot revenues vaulted despite the subtraction of 599 machines. In July ’09, the one-armed bandits took in $31 million. This year, it was nearly $42 million (+37%). Slot win per machine went from $199/day to $305.
A partial month of table games in the Keystone State produced $2 million from 50 tables (an above-average $1,927/table — but still only good for a sixth-place finish). Despite a 110-machine increase on the slot floor, revenues rose from $21 million to $24 million year/year. Also getting more wind in their sails were Mt. Airy Casino, leapfrogging its next-to-last-place Mohegan Sun rival into the #5 spot, just behind Sands Bethlehem, which received a much-needed revenue boost, despite being the last to roll out its tables. Numero Uno in table take was, predictably, Parx Casino, the big dog of the Philadelphia market.
Given that the nine Pennsylvania casinos debuted their tables on a staggered set of dates, July’s rankings to represent an apples-to-apples comparison. That’ll come next month, although it’d be a huge surprise if Parx wasn’t still atop the leader board. (Location, location, location.) Harrah’s Chester came in second and a surprise #3 finisher was Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, previously one of the state’s worst laggards and biggest disappointments. Cannery Casino Resorts‘ greater-Pittsburgh racino had the seventh-highest table revenues while the Erie track brought up the rear.
