It was a record-breaking year for gambling in Pennsylvania in 2016.
Combined gross revenue from table games and slot machines hit $3.21 billion last year — the most ever — the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board announced Tuesday.
The $3.21 billion is 1.25 percent higher than in 2015, when combined gross revenue totaled $3.17 billion, the previous record. It also marks the sixth straight calendar year that the combined revenue has topped $3 billion. Table games were legalized in 2010.
Although slot machine revenue dipped slightly last year, table game revenue — at $853.2 million, or 5.6 percent more than 2015 — set a record as well, propelling overall earnings to the new high.
“Tables really were the driver,” said Richard McGarvey, a gaming board spokesman.
“Tables continue to expand. Slots revenue the last couple of years has been flat to slightly down. Tables are clearly still expanding. More people are playing them.”
The new record — representing the amount that gamblers lost playing slot machines and table games — translated into nearly $1.4 billion in tax revenue, the majority of which goes for property tax relief.
Rivers Casino on the North Shore generated nearly $334.2 million in combined revenue last year, and The Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Washington County produced $253 million.
Mark Belko: mbelko@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1262.
First Published: January 17, 2017, 7:22 p.m.