Iowa hit a record in September as consumers bet a total of $72.4m in stakes and the state’s revenues grew to $5.2m.
Handle grew 43.9% month-on-month and 88.1% year-on-year to $72.4m. It surpassed surpassing its previous record of $59.3m set in November 2019.
Remote benefits
Iowa ranks in T10th position on the Wedge Index thanks to features like remote registration and 13 of its 19 casinos across the state offering retail and online sports betting to patrons.
Players are required to register in-person when opening their accounts, but are then able to bet from anywhere on the state.
The benefits of this feature were demonstrated by September’s figures.
Operators’ online gross win rose 32.1% year-on-year to $2.7m and online handle totalled $50m, a rise of 129.3% on the same period in 2019 and comfortably setting a record for the state.
With consumers avoiding traveling or visiting casinos because of the pandemic, retail gross win dropped 15% on an annual basis to $2.5m on an overall handle of $22.4m. Operators paid $348,827 in taxes.
William Hill in the lead
In terms of leading sportsbooks, the standings read as follow:
Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino:
William Hill’s sportsbook led the way, generating gross win of $1.1m on $18.3m worth of bets. The vast majority of Prairie Meadows’ revenue, $975,692, was made online and just $121,354 made through its retail book.
Penn National Gaming Ameristar II Casino in Council Bluffs:
Recorded $803,243 in gross win on $5.7m worth of bets.
The casino doesn’t provide online betting, so all those bets were placed over the counter.
Among retail sportsbooks Ameristar II was the highest grossing land-based casino in Iowa for both gross win and handle.
DraftKings’ sportsbook at the Wild Rose Casino in Jefferson:
Recorded the second highest stakes total in the state at $6.9m and gross win of $386,246. Online-betting represented $6.8m of the total stakes amount, with online gross win of $360,401 reflecting the predominance of the online channel.
FanDuel’s sportsbook at the Diamond Jo Casino in Worth:
Saw a mere $732,882 in gross revenues on $6.1m of bets.
