US Commercial Casinos Achieve Record Revenues in 2023

According to a report published by the American Gaming Association (AGA) on February 20, 2024, US commercial casinos have continued to show strong financial results for several consecutive years, with Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) increasing year-on-year since the recovery from the COVID pandemic, registering record growth for three consecutive years.

The commercial gaming industry, which includes commercial slot halls, poker rooms, sports betting facilities, and land-based and online casinos, generated 2023 revenues of $6.52 billion for the entire year. It represents an increase of 10% from revenues generated in the sector in 2022.

In addition to the full-year revenues, two more records were broken in 2023. The fourth quarter commercial gaming revenues reached $17.42 billion (a 9.5% increase year-on-year), and the month of December saw gaming revenues of $6.22 billion, a 13.3% increase year-on-year. Both of these 2023 figures represent a quarter and single-month all-time high.

The report presents revenues across several verticals, including slots, table games (poker and other card games), sports betting, and real money online casinos. All of these verticals also registered record revenues during 2023. Casino slots and table games, including casino poker, generated a total of $49.36 in GGR, an increase of 3.3% compared to the revenues generated from the same segments in 2022.

Sports betting showed a considerable increase of 44.5% from 2022, with 2023 revenues of 10.92 billion. Meanwhile, iGaming, representing revenues from US online casinos, grew by 22.9% year-over-year, generating a GGR of $6.17.

Although real-money online casinos showed impressive growth, land-based casinos in the country still dominate revenues over US online casinos. Commercial brick-and-mortar casinos in the US, including casino slot machines, table games (card games and poker), and retail sports betting, generated $50.02 billion in 2023. That figure represents 75.3% of the total revenues generated in 2023. In comparison, online gaming, including real money online casinos, as featured on US Casino Pros, generated a GGR of $16.43 billion in 2023, which accounted for 24.7% of the total revenue for the year.

In correlation with the record-breaking revenue figures in 2023, gaming taxes generated by state and local governments also saw a significant rise. Commercial gaming operators contributed an estimated $14.42 billion in taxes, an increase of 9.7% from state and local gambling taxes generated in 2022. In the fourth quarter of 2023, gambling operators paid an estimated $3.72 billion in gaming taxes, representing a rise of 8.5% year-on-year. Notably, these figures do not include sportsbook annual fees, federal taxes, and they also exclude the billions generated for the community in the form of employment, income, sales, payroll, and corporate taxes.

A total of 35 commercial gaming jurisdictions operated in both 2022 and 2023. 31 of these had an increase in revenues generated from land-based casino slots and table games, poker games, sports betting, and real money online casinos (where legal). 28 of these jurisdictions generated the highest yearly revenues of all times. This also included nine of the 10 highest-grossing gambling states.

During the fourth quarter of 2023, 17 states showed record-high revenues for a single quarter. However, some states had seen a decline, including Florida, Indiana, and Mississippi, which showed a drop of 0.4%, 2.3%, and 3.5%, respectively. The most significant drop happened in Washington D.C. (which only has regulated sports betting), with 2023 revenues declining by 17.6% from 2022.

Only six US states currently offer legal real money online casinos. These include New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, Connecticut and Delaware. There weren’t many new states that legalized iGaming recently. Still, US online casinos continued to show strong growth through 2023. Revenues from the six states listed above (excluding Nevada, which only offers online poker) rose 22.9% in 2023 compared to 2022, generating record-breaking revenues of $6.17 billion.

New Jersey and Michigan each generated $1.92 billion in iGaming revenues for 2023. But Michigan still slightly surpassed New Jersey by $115,000 in annual revenues, making it the biggest iGaming state in the country. Pennsylvania came in third with annual revenues of $1.74 billion for 2023. All six states with legal real money online casinos broke records for annual revenues. Delaware grew by 3.3% year-on-year, while Connecticut revenues grew by 44.7% year-on-year. It was the second full year of Connecticut’s iGaming market).

2023 went out with a bang for US online casinos, with Q4 revenues setting a new quarterly record of $1.68 billion, an increase of 20.6% from Q4 2022.