KEY TAKEAWAYS
Pennsylvania’s regulated gaming industry generated $7,005,987,435 in combined gross revenue in fiscal year 2025/26, the first time it has topped $7 billion, according to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) release of July 17, 2026. That is 9.6% above the $6,394,641,819 reported for fiscal 2024/25, and it returned a record $3,098,193,583 to the Commonwealth in taxes and fees. The headline is a record; the more useful story is where the growth came from.
The state’s mix is changing. Online casino-type gaming and sports wagering supplied all of the net growth, while retail slots were essentially flat and table games declined. This article walks through the regulator’s figures, shows the arithmetic behind each derived number, compares the year with prior fiscal years, and explains what the data cannot tell a reader. All figures are as reported by the PGCB before any adjustments by the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, as of October 2026.
How Pennsylvania’s Market Is Built and Reported
Pennsylvania is one of the most varied regulated gaming markets in the United States. The PGCB oversees land-based casinos, online casino-type games, retail and online sports wagering, video gaming terminals (VGTs) at qualified truck stops, and fantasy sports contests. Its September 30, 2026 annual report release counts 18 land-based casinos, 17 retail sports wagering locations, 11 online sports wagering sites, 22 sites for online casino-type games and 72 truck stop establishments with VGTs.
The land-based casinos fall into four license categories: six racetrack casinos, five stand-alone casinos, two resort casinos and five mini-casinos. Online products are offered under those casino licenses, which is why the regulator’s online tables list licensed casinos rather than consumer-facing brands. A licensee in the table may therefore be linked to more than one online partner, and the tables do not break that out.
The fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30, so fiscal 2025/26 covers July 2025 through June 2026. The PGCB reports gross revenue by game type, and the revenue measure follows the regulator’s own definition; readers who want to compare it with other states should first read the definitions in GGR vs NGR: Gross Gaming Revenue Explained. The tax and fee total also includes $110 million of annual slot machine license operation fees that fund local share accounts, so it is not a pure tax figure.
The Fiscal 2025/26 Numbers
Total gross revenue was $7,005,987,435. Online casino-type gaming (iGaming) was the largest component at $2,933,453,989, up 18.42%. Retail slot machines produced $2,440,995,939, up 0.02%. Table games produced $908,941,135, down 2.15%. Sports wagering produced $662,947,631, up 35.95%. VGTs produced $41,622,548 (+0.55%) and fantasy contests $18,026,193 (−5.79%). The components sum to the reported total within a dollar of rounding.
Where the current year is fiscal 2025/26 and the prior year is fiscal 2024/25. For total revenue: ($7,005,987,435 − $6,394,641,819) ÷ $6,394,641,819 × 100 ≈ 9.56%, a net increase of $611.3 million.
Applying the same formula by component isolates the drivers. iGaming added $456.4 million and sports wagering added $175.3 million, together $631.7 million. Retail slots added $0.5 million, VGTs $0.2 million, table games lost $20.0 million and fantasy contests lost $1.1 million. Online products contributed about 103% of the net increase, because the small declines elsewhere offset part of it. The online share of total revenue (iGaming plus sports wagering) rose from 46.4% to 51.3%.
Sports wagering shows why revenue and volume can diverge. The PGCB reported that handle, the total amount wagered, fell from $8,721,795,533 to $8,448,101,928, a decline of 3.1%, while revenue rose 35.95%.
Fiscal 2025/26: $662,947,631 ÷ $8,448,101,928 × 100 ≈ 7.85%. Fiscal 2024/25: $487,639,844 ÷ $8,721,795,533 × 100 ≈ 5.59%. That is a rise of about 2.3 percentage points, or about 40% in relative terms, and it explains the divergence. These hold figures are derived here from the regulator’s reported revenue and handle, not reported by the PGCB as hold.
Tax follows the same logic. Tax revenue by game in fiscal 2025/26 was $1,233,866,398 from slots (including mandated fees paid by some operators), $153,908,255 from table games, $1,337,414,660 from iGaming, $238,661,147 from sports wagering, $21,643,725 from VGTs and $2,699,399 from fantasy contests. Dividing each by its revenue gives roughly 50.5% for slots, 16.9% for table games, 45.6% for iGaming and 36.0% for sports wagering. Those are effective ratios, not statutory rates.
What the Mix Shift Means
For the Commonwealth, the shift toward online products is financially favorable on the regulator’s own numbers. Each dollar of iGaming revenue returned about 45.6 cents in tax, against about 16.9 cents for table games, so a mix that tilts away from table games and toward online casino lifts the state’s take even when total growth is modest. Total taxes and fees of $3,098,193,583 equal about 44.2% of gross revenue, or about 42.7% excluding the $110 million license fees.
For operators, the picture is more mixed than the revenue headline. Online revenue is growing quickly, but the retail base that anchors the land-based casinos is flat to declining, and a flat retail line is a real drop once costs rise. The regulator’s data show revenue only; they say nothing about profit, marketing spend or the cost of acquiring online customers, so the business effect on any one company cannot be read from this release.
For the market structure, iGaming is concentrated. The two largest licensees in the regulator’s iGaming table, Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course ($1,133,363,805) and Valley Forge Casino Resort ($811,783,617), together account for about 66.3% of statewide iGaming revenue. Concentration of that degree means a change in one licensee’s online partner or product can move a statewide figure, which is a reason to treat licensee-level swings carefully.
Growth is also decelerating at the margin in iGaming. iGaming revenue grew about 27.1% in fiscal 2024/25 and 18.4% in fiscal 2025/26. A slower rate on a larger base is normal for a maturing market, and it does not by itself signal weakness, but a maturing online line means the next leg of growth depends on hold, new product and the retail base rather than on new-customer adoption alone.
Comparison With Prior Fiscal Years
Fiscal 2025/26 extends a long climb. Combined revenue stood near $3.3 billion in fiscal 2018/19, fell to $2.72 billion in the pandemic-affected 2019/20 year, and has risen every year since. The table shows the regulator’s annual totals and the year-over-year change calculated from them.
| Fiscal year | Combined revenue | Change from prior year |
|---|---|---|
| 2018/19 | $3,309,766,175 | n/a |
| 2019/20 | $2,724,785,117 | about −17.7% |
| 2020/21 | $3,874,923,386 | about +42.2% |
| 2021/22 | $5,042,967,392 | about +30.1% |
| 2022/23 | $5,513,762,017 | about +9.3% |
| 2023/24 | $5,892,516,807 | about +6.9% |
| 2024/25 | $6,394,641,819 | about +8.5% |
| 2025/26 | $7,005,987,435 | about +9.6% |
Over the four fiscal years from 2021/22 to 2025/26, revenue grew from $5,042,967,392 to $7,005,987,435. The compound annual growth rate is (7,005,987,435 ÷ 5,042,967,392)^(1 ÷ 4) − 1 ≈ 8.6% per year. Fiscal 2025/26 growth of about 9.6% is therefore slightly faster than that four-year pace, helped by the 2.3-point rise in sports hold. By the regulator’s own calendar-year release, 2025 combined revenue was $6,796,211,719, up 10.74% from $6,137,089,054 in 2024, a different period that should not be mixed with the fiscal figures.
Limits and Misreadings
The first limit is timing and definitions. Fiscal-year and calendar-year figures differ, and the PGCB states that its revenue and tax amounts precede any adjustments by the Department of Revenue. Totals here also include VGTs and fantasy contests, so they are not interchangeable with other organizations’ commercial casino or sports betting totals for the same state.
The second is hold volatility. A 2.3-point rise in sports hold produced most of the sports revenue growth, and hold depends heavily on results and bet mix in a given year. Reading the 35.95% as underlying demand growth would be a mistake, since handle actually declined.
Third, licensee-level swings are not explained. In the iGaming table, one licensee grew 123.97% while two others fell 52.77% and 47.53%, and the release gives no reason. Because online products run under casino licenses and the partners behind them can change, those movements may not reflect the licensed casino’s own business. Finally, the tax-to-revenue ratios above are derived effective ratios that blend rates, fees and timing, so they should not be quoted as tax rates.
Key Figures
| Game | FY 2025/26 | Change | Tax ÷ revenue (derived) |
|---|---|---|---|
| iGaming | $2,933,453,989 | +18.42% | about 45.6% |
| Retail slots | $2,440,995,939 | +0.02% | about 50.5% |
| Retail table games | $908,941,135 | −2.15% | about 16.9% |
| Sports wagering | $662,947,631 | +35.95% | about 36.0% |
| Video gaming terminals | $41,622,548 | +0.55% | about 52.0% |
| Fantasy contests | $18,026,193 | −5.79% | about 15.0% |
| Total | $7,005,987,435 | +9.56% | about 44.2% (incl. $110M fees) |
Definitions to keep in mind: revenue means the PGCB’s reported gross revenue by game; handle is the total amount wagered on sports; hold here is sports revenue divided by handle. Tax figures include mandated and license fees where the regulator states so.
Related Analysis
For the definitions behind revenue figures like these, read GGR vs NGR: Gross Gaming Revenue Explained. For another regulator-based state market, see New York Sports Betting Revenue: Size, Growth and Hold, and for the economics of hold and taxes, see How Sportsbooks Make Money: Hold, Vig and Taxes. This analysis reports regulator data and is not investment advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources & References
- Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board — Fiscal Year Gaming Revenue Tops $7 Billion for the First Time (July 17, 2026)
- Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board — Record Gaming Revenue for 2025 (January 21, 2026)
- Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board — 20th Edition Annual Report release (September 30, 2026)
- Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board — Revenue Reports
