Pennsylvania Records Higher Tax Gambling Revenue than Nevada

For decades now, Nevada, home of Las Vegas, was considered to be the gambling centre of the US. If any state was synonymous with gambling, it was Nevada. Gambling tax revenues are one of the biggest sources of income for the state authorities. It didn’t seem that it could change, even with the newest tax plan which was passed with the aim to spread the tax burden across a range of different industries, even though it was clear that the gambling industry will remain one of the biggest contributors.

But, even though it seemed impossible a while ago, Nevada is no longer the state that collects most tax revenues. Pennsylvania now collects more tax than Nevada, and New York collected almost as much. Pennsylvania was in the news the summer, when it was announced that this state passed the online gambling bill.

New York Is Right Behind

The latest report on gambling tax revenues states that the state of Pennsylvania managed to collect a staggering amount of $1.38 billion in gambling tax revenue. However, it should be noted that the total casino revenues of Nevada were still much higher, compared to the figure for Pennsylvania. Namely, the 12 active casinos in Pennsylvania registered $3.17 billion in revenues, whereas the figure for all Nevada casinos was $11.11 billion.

New York was right behind Nevada, even though this state only legalised gambling in 2001 and opened its first casino 3 years later. New York managed to collect a total of $888.4 million in gambling tax revenue, only slightly more less Nevada. There are 9 casinos in New York, but most of the revenues come from the two casino resorts that are close to New York City, the Empire City Casino located in Yonkers and the Queens Resorts World Casino. Although that does not mean that the other casinos aren’t contributing.

Nevada tax gambling revenue was $889 million, 500 million less than Pennsylvania, despite the fact that gambling is legal there ever since 1931 and over 270 casinos operate within the state borders.

Many Industries Will Benefit from the Increased Tax Revenues

One of the reasons why Pennsylvania and New York manage to surpass Nevada is the fact that the tax revenues in these states have been growing in the past few years, whereas Nevada’s revenues remained pretty much stable. By comparison, the tax gambling revenues in Pennsylvania and New York rose by 2.34% and 2.8% respectively, compared to Nevada where the growth was more than insignificant, 0.087%.

Pennsylvania’s tourism industry, the state’s economic development, and the local governments in general, will benefit from the increase of the tax revenues. Moreover, some of the money will be used for property tax relief and for funding the state’s horse-racing industry which is in decline.

In New York, most of the money will be used to improve the state’s education system, which means that local schools will receive extra funds.

The same group that conducted this research, recently started studying tribal gaming and the effect it has on local communities.

The research also showed that casino-rich areas like Atlantic City, Vegas’s Strip and the casinos in Indiana and Chicago, near the Great Lakes, will likely remain America’s most popular casino destinations.