The American Gaming Association (AGA) has been tracking the growth of commercial gaming in the United States for many years. On Tuesday the American Gaming Association updated its revenue tracker. And each month, it publishes updated numbers that highlight this continued expansion. This month was no exception, with February showing the highest-grossing month 2 on record for US gaming revenues.
February 2020 was the last month of pre-pandemic casino operations, and this year’s totals were up 16.1 percent from that period at $4.39 billion. The monthly sales for this year have already surpassed the February 2021 shutdown month by 35.9%.
Few States Still Lagging
Only Rhode Island, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Louisiana have yet to meet or surpass their February 2020 targets. According to the Revenue Tracker report after the opening of Encore Boston Harbor in the summer of 2019, Rhode Island’s statistics indicated a very competitive New England market. Kansas has only been allowing commercial gambling for a few years, and a new tribal gaming center near the state’s largest commercial casino draws money away.
Destination markets like Las Vegas continue to generate profits despite a decrease in visitors. Compared to last year, visits to Las Vegas dropped by more than 21% this year, but they were still 70 percent greater than they were in February 2020.
Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, and Mississippi are the only five states that publish average revenue per visitor. However, the number of visitors has dropped by about 14 percent in 2022 compared to 2020.
The online casino and sports betting industries continued to expand, but because there were so few sporting events on the calendar, sports numbers slowed down somewhat. Last year, there were 20 commercial sports betting markets in the United States, and sports betting was legal in 26 of them this February. Nevertheless, the $324.6 million in revenue from online and land-based sports betting is impressive, which was up more than 40% compared to the previous year.
Unbroken Streak of Broken Records
The AGA revenue tracker report is based on data from 12 states: Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia. It doesn’t include tribal casinos.
Commercial gambling revenues in the United States shattered all records during the third quarter of 2021, reaching $13.89 billion. It was the second quarter in a row to set new records.
