Online Casino Revenue Surges While Land-Based Gaming Hits Record High In Latest AGA Accounting
US casino gambling is at its highest levels in history, both online and in brick-and-mortar establishments. Data released this week by the American Gaming Association (AGA) shows a 7.5% year-over year increase in total commercial gaming revenue. Online casinos and sports betting provided most of that. Online casino revenue was up 28.7% for the full year and 33.1% in Q4.
Meanwhile, gaming revenue at physical casinos set a new single-year record according to the AGA. Full-year growth for physical casinos was only 0.8%, but things were picking up steam in Q4 with 2.3% growth. Despite that modest growth, the trend suggests that concerns over iGaming cannibalization of brick-and-mortar casinos are overblown.
AGA Revenue Report Full of New Records
The latest update in the AGA’s commercial revenue tracker is full of highlights for non-tribal gaming in the US. Among those are new annual and quarterly records for both in-person and online casino gaming.
For land-based gaming, 2024 produced almost $49.8 billion in revenue and the fourth quarter contributed nearly $12.86 billion of that total. Those figures represent single-year and fourth-quarter records but marginally so.
The iGaming sector’s comparatively larger growth rates wrought almost $2.4 billion in Q4 revenue and over $8.4 billion in revenue for the entire year of 2024. Those are single-quarter and single-year records for the segment.
Opponents of iGaming legalization could point to that relatively lower growth rate for land-based gaming and the fact that iGaming accounted for a record 30% of the whole in terms of commercial gaming revenue for 2024 as proof of cannibalization. Other data show how that is a self-serving and shallow observation, however.
Online casino states saw larger increases in 2024
The AGA’s accounting breaks down non-tribal revenue totals for 2024 by jurisdiction, showing comparisons to both Q4 2023 and full year 2023. The seven legal iGaming states plus Nevada experienced some of the largest increases in both observations.
https://www.playusa.com/online-casino-revenue-surges-while-land-based-gaming-hits-record-high-in-latest-aga-accounting/