HARRISBURG, PA: Pennsylvania’s casinos generated a record $116 million in slot machine tax revenue during July of this year, a 17.81 percent increase compared to July, 2009.

Mount Airy Casino Resort, in Monroe County, continued to trail numbers from a year ago, down 1.55 percent but Mount airy was not the biggest lower.  The Meadows Racetrack and Casino, near Pittsburgh, was down 20 percent from last year. 

In figures released today by the Gaming Control Board, the Commonwealth received $116,079,631 in tax revenue, an average of $3.74 million per day. The casinos gross revenue was $211,053,874 from slot machine play.

In addition, there was a 5.26 percent increase when comparing just the eight casinos that have operated for at least a full year, with revenue at all but two of these casinos up this July compared to the same month in 2009.

Gaming Control Board Executive Director Kevin O’Toole says the start of table games play at the casinos certainly increased patronage and appears to have had a positive effect on slot machine play, too.

“It is too early to gage a trend, but Pennsylvania casinos have indicated they have experienced a significant increase in the number of visitors since table games were rolled out in mid-July,” O’Toole says.

The nine casinos, including Mount Airy, each began offering table games gambling in mid-July. July table games revenue figures for each of the casinos will not be available from the Gaming Control Board until later in August.

Gross revenue for each of the casinos operating in July 2010 is as follows with percentage change reflected for those casinos that were operating in both years:

The average number of slot machines operating statewide daily during July was 24,903.