PA Online Casinos Move to No. 2 in the U.S.

PA online casinos have experienced a meteoric rise to the top in the past year — after a slow legalization process and launch disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Back when Pennsylvania was first considering legalizing online gambling in 2013, the state saw legislation stall several times. Since Pennsylvania is considered a sister state of New Jersey (which legalized online gambling back in 2013), it seemed as though the former would take the latter’s lead and make a clear path to legalization.

Sadly, that’s not what happened.

Legalization didn’t start until 2017, and online gambling wasn’t actually legalized in the state until 2019. Pennsylvania hoped that the additional revenue would help to cut $200 million from its $2.2 billion budget deficit.

As gaming commenced in July of 2019, the state waited with bated breath to find out if online gambling would be as profitable as Pennsylvanians had hoped.

Yet, it took some time for that dream to be realized.

By the end of 2019, gross online revenue was over $10.5 million. And then COVID hit, driving the revenue from land-based casinos to online options.

Now, Pennsylvania holds the no. 2 spot in the U.S. for online casinos.