The twelve casino in Pennsylvania have reported an almost 3% increase year-on-year in total July gross gaming revenues to $288.45 million led by the performance of Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem following its introduction of new electronic “hybrid” terminals.

According to official figures released by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem brought in $48.87 million in July gross gaming revenues, which represented a rise of nearly 6% year-on-year, while the Las Vegas Sands Corporation facility’s table games revenues for the 31-day period improved by almost 12% to hit $21.14 million. The casino in a former Bethlehem Steel plant revealed that it took in $402,000 during the month from its new stable of “hybrid” gaming terminals that combine the pace of a slot with the feel of a live table game.

“For being just the first month, it’s clear that there is some real interest there,” Richard McGarvey from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board told The Morning Call newspaper. “These types of games tend to take a while to catch on so I’d expect big increases in the coming months. You can bet every casino will be watching this closely.”

The Morning Call reported that McGarvey expects these new terminals to help Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem’s overall business as the casino’s collection of 150 new machines did not go live until the middle of the first week of July. They were additionally “soft launched” with no advertising or marketing in order to give staff time to work out any bugs.

“We expected them to start slow and gradually increase in popularity,” Mark Juliano from Las Vegas Sands Corporation told the newspaper earlier this month. “It’s going to take some time for people to learn how they work but they’re doing exactly what we expected. The potential is there.”

For table games, statewide July gross revenues improved by 8.47% to $75.02 million led by Philadelphia’s SugarHouse Casino, which saw table games takings skyrocket by 33.5% year-on-year to $9.27 million and give it a 13.64% improvement in overall gaming revenues to $25.06 million.

It was also a good month for Bensalem’s Parx Casino And Racing complex as July gross gaming revenues swelled by 3.78% year-on-year to $47.67 million while it brought in $14.01 million from table games, which represented a boost of some 12%.

Other monthly winners in Pennsylvania included Presque Isle Downs And Casino as the venue reported July gross gaming revenues of $12.72 million, which was a 4.52% rise year-on-year, while the $1.24 million in table games takings represented an advance of 24.18%.

However, Mount Airy Casino Resort was one of the losers as it saw gross gaming revenues for July crash by 1.84% year-on-year to $17.43 million while the Poconos enterprise reported monthly table games takings of $3.51 million, which was a decrease of some 17.04%.