July 16, 2013|By Matt Assad, Of The Morning Call

By the June 30 close of the 2012-13 fiscal year, Pennsylvania casinos had pulled in $3.14 billion, according to numbers released Tuesday by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. That's virtually level with what they brought in the previous year — largely on the strength of a 30 percent increase in table-games play at Sands.

"Not only was Sands' June a state record, but if you look at the top 10 months, it's all Sands," gaming board spokesman Richard McGarvey said. "Clearly they're doing something right. They are bringing in the players at a rate that no one else can touch."

Sands' win — and gamblers' losses — in Bethlehem is not a new story. Sands has been the state's top table-games casino since late 2011 and now enjoys a big lead over second-place Parx, in Bensalem Township. For the fiscal year that just ended, Sands pulled in $165 million at the tables compared with Parx's $110 million.

Even the theory for Sands' success isn't new. Closer to wealthy New York and northern New Jersey players than they are to Atlantic City, it has the state's steadiest stream of out-of-state gamblers. They account for roughly half of all players at Sands.

What's surprising to some is the duration of its winning streak. While seven of nine Pennsylvania casinos that have been open at least two years saw a table-games decline in 2012-13, Sands had a nearly 30 percent increase. That increase, amounting to $38 million over the previous year, almost single-handedly kept Pennsylvania from having its first down year by just barely offsetting the state's 2 percent drop in slot-machine revenue for the year.

Shawn McCloud, vice president of analysis for New Jersey-based Spectrum Gaming Group, has a theory about that. With its location, Sands can handle a largely untapped convenience gambling market in New York and northern New Jersey. But it wasn't until last year, when it expanded to 183 tables, more than doubling its original total, that it could fully handle the pent-up demand for gambling that didn't require a long drive down a toll road to South Jersey.

"You have 12 casinos in Atlantic City competing with each other and you have this one in Bethlehem that's able to tap into part of their market," McCloud said. "It's been very lucrative for them."

Meanwhile, total revenues in Atlantic City are down 10 percent over last year, and 45 percent over its peak year of 2006.

It's not as though Atlantic City hasn't tried to fight back. Many of the casino hotels are offering even small-time players free rooms to come on weekdays, and most recently the struggling Revel casino is telling gamblers it will refund their losses for the entire month of July.

It may be working with the Philadelphia-area casinos, where total revenues have flat-lined, but it has not fazed Sands. Sands casino President Robert DeSalvio declined to comment Tuesday, citing a policy of not discussing casino revenues, but the numbers speak for themselves. In Bethlehem, gamblers lose an average of $3,130 per day at each table, compared with the $1,679 lost each day at Atlantic City tables.

Perhaps more telling is that Sands' table-games numbers don't just dominate New Jersey. When Pennsylvania opened table games in 2010, experts predicted it would boost total casino revenues — which to that point came only from slot machines — by roughly 20 percent.

Sands' June table winnings amounted to 42 percent of all of the casino's gambling winnings. The tables at the rest of Pennsylvania's casinos amounted to 19.5 percent of the total take.

So how long can Sands stay on a roll?

"It's hard to tell when things might level off," McCloud said. "But as long as New York doesn't have table games, and as long as Sands is the next closest option, it's going to do very, very well."

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*Valley Forge did not open until midway through 2011-12 fiscal year.

Source: Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

Sands on a roll

Casino/Table Games Revenue 2012-13 /Table Games Revenue 2011-12/% change

Sands, Bethlehem/$165.4 /$127.8/29.38

Parx, Bensalem/$110.3/$116.9/-5.65

SugarHouse, Philadelphia/$85.3/$81.2/5.06

Harrah's, Chester/$80.3/$80.4/-0.19

Rivers, Pittsburgh/$69.3/$70.0/-1.03

Mohegan Sun, Wilkes-Barre/$42.2/$43.1/-0.44

Mount Airy, Paradise Township/$39.2/$41.1/-4.63

Hollywood Casino, outside Harrisburg/$37.8/$38.9/-2.70

The Meadows, outside Pittsburgh/$36.0/$35.7/0.84

*Valley Forge Casino/$31.6/$7.19/343.64

Presque Isle Downs, Erie/$15.0/$21.5/-30.52

Statewide Total/$713.1/$663.9/7.42