It has been reported that the United States grossed an astounding $115bn – including tribal revenue – in gaming revenue throughout 2024. When not including tribal revenue, the US still made $72.04bn in commercial gaming revenue alone – a rise of 7.5% when compared to 2023’s figure of $67.01bn. This figure is a combination of commercial revenue from: casino gaming, sports betting and internet gaming.
The American Gaming Association (AGA) released their full revenue report for 2024, this month. The report reflects a fourth consecutive year of record revenue for the commercial casino industry. When not ing for the 2020 pandemic, annual gaming revenue has increased every year in the last decade. The report covers 38 jurisdictions where sports betting and/or casino gaming is legal as of December 31, 2024.
The totals are inclusive of all revenue from legal sports betting states (online and land-based) with the exception of sports betting revenue made by tribal operators operating under a tribal-state gaming compact.
Consumer spend 2023 vs 2024
In 2024 North Carolina and Vermont unlocked for mobile sports betting so they reported their first year of figures within this report too. Out of the 38 legal jurisdictions, 27 states of those – plus the District of Columbia – saw an increase in gaming revenue during this year.
Out of all of the jurisdictions, Nevada paved the way in both 2023 and 2024 with their revenue increasing by 0.5% in 2024, to $15.61bn. Meanwhile the state that made the least in consumer spend was Montana which also saw a decrease in revenue of 15.6% down to $7.1m from 2023’s $8.5m.
However, both Pennsylvania and New Jersey set new all-time records – thanks to the growth of iGaming within the state. Pennsylvania made $6.87bn in 2024 and New Jersey made $6.3bn. Additionally, commercial casino gaming revenue also sured $5bn in New York for the first time ever.
The jurisdiction that saw the biggest revenue increase year-on-year was the District of Columbia with an increase of 181.7%, from $19.1m in 2023 to $53.7m in 2024.
On the flip-side, the jurisdiction with the largest revenue decrease year-on-year was Montana. This state saw a 15.6% decline year-on-year to $7.1m in 2024 from $8.5m in 2023.
Gaming tax revenue 2023 vs 2024
In 2024, the US reached a new high in reported tax revenue from commercial gaming. The new record climbed to $15.91bn in gaming tax revenue, an increase of 8.5% on 2023’s figures.
The state which contributed the most in tax revenue in both 2023 and 2024 was Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has a rather conservative tax rate – of 55% on electronic gaming device revenue and 16% table game revenue – and stands to have one of the highest tax rates in the country.
Due to having such a large population, as well as high tax rates, Pennsylvania raked in $2.5bn in tax during 2024 which also rose 9% when compared to 2023. The second highest contributor was New York with $2.29bn paid in gaming taxes, an increase of 10.8% year-on-year.
Meanwhile the state that contributed the least in tax revenue was Wyoming. Wyoming made $1.4m in tax revenue during 2024 which had a large increase (32.7%) on last year’s figures of $1.1m. Meanwhile the state with the second-lowest tax contributions was Montana, which brought in $2.7m in 2024 – a decrease of 27% when compared to 2023.
However, the highest year-on-year change was a whopping 229.2% increase in tax payments from the District of Columbia which gave $4.9m in tax in 2023, and gave $16.1m in tax in 2024. DC appeared to be the district that has both the highest overall revenue increase as well as highest overall tax revenue increase thanks to the Sports Wagering Amendment Act of 2024, which permitted online and mobile sports betting as of July 15, 2024.
On the other hand the state that saw the biggest dip in tax revenue was Montana with a decline of 27%. Montana’s tax contributions dropped from $3.7m to $2.7m during 2024. This figure tracks when considering that the state also saw a large revenue dip of 15.6% in the same period.
Furthermore the more states that unlock iGaming, the more tax revenue that can be brought into the US. How much tax revenue your state could earn from legalizing online casinos? Roughly $15.5bn could be made if all states unlocked iGaming.
US land-based casino revenue 2024
Land-based casinos earned $49.89bn – up 1% on last year – in revenue during 2024. This figure is calculated by revenue figures from 492 commercial casinos across 27 states. In 2024, 11 states set record annual revenue totals, showing a growth in traditional casino betting.
The top three commercial land-based casino hotspots in the US were found to be: the Las Vegas Strip, Nevada ($8.72bn), Atlantic City, New Jersey ($2.82bn) and Chicagoland, Illinois/Indiana ($2.25bn).
Of those 27 states, 25 states report separate revenue figures for video gaming machines (VGMs) and table games; revenue from VGMs increased 1.6% Y-o-Y to $36.09bn; while revenue from table games decreased by 2% to $10.14bn in 2024.
However, despite 11 states setting record annual revenue figures, 14 of the 20 largest land-based casino markets reported a decline in revenue in 2024. The report also mentioned that Resorts World Casino in NYC was the most lucrative casino-resort in the US during 2024.
US sports betting revenue 2024
Sports betting brought in an impressive $13.78bn in 2024, a 24.8% rise on 2023’s figures. This increase in consumer spend is due to a growing trust in the betting market due to new states unlocking and other states being on the rise year after year. This sports betting figure does not include tribal revenue. New states to launch a new sports betting market in 2024 were: Delaware, North Carolina and Vermont; meanwhile Kentucky and Vermont reported their first full year figures.
In fact 29 of the 35 states that permit legal commercial sports betting reported a higher revenue in 2024 compared to 2023. The outliers were: Montana Mississippi, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Ohio and South Dakota.
Leading the sports betting market in the US was New York – miles ahead of the other states. New York made $2.1bn in revenue, meanwhile the second-highest stood to be Illinois who were quite far behind with $1.23bn – up 24.5% compared to 2023.
There seems to be a trend with the way sports betting is going in the US and that trend is online. Mobile sports betting saw a rise of 27% year-on-year, whilst retail sports betting dropped by a significant 23%.
US iGaming revenue 2024
The AGA classifies iGaming as online casinos, so within the iGaming revenue figure are the seven states that permit online casinos: Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia. A new state that recently launched iGaming in 2024 was Rhode Island, which reported their first year earnings of $26.3m.
Those seven states made an eye-watering $8.41bn in revenue in 2024 alone, this was an impressive increase of 28.7% on last year’s figures.
In fact, the combined revenue of Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania alone amounted to $7.54bn of the total figure. Of the combined revenue, Pennsylvania is responsible for $2.71bn of that total; an increase of 28.6% on 2023.
Additionally, Delaware’s total was over four-fold compared to 2023 – rising to $62.6m from $14.1m – and West Virginia also saw large growth – increasing 57.3% to $246.5m.
Tribal gaming revenue 2024
The National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) reported statistics on tribal gaming figures for 2023 of $41.9bn, an increase of 2.4% compared to 2022.
By the end of 2024 there were 29 states operating 537 tribal casinos compared to the 492 commercial casinos in 27 states. Full revenue figures for tribal gaming will be released by the NIGC further into 2025
However when going off total figures proposed by the AGA, tribal revenue comes in at $42.96bn for 2024 which would be an increase of 2.5% on 2023’s figures.
Growing popularity and acceptance of gambling in the United States
The revenue is pretty telling… but in 2024 more Americans engaged with gambling than they ever have before. As a matter of fact, according to research conducted by the AGA, 55% of American adults engaged in some form of gambling within this year. Of those people who engaged in gambling, 28% were at a physical casino and 21% placed a sports wager.
It was found that 49% – or 122 million adults -of the population had visited a casino – for entertainment or to gamble – in the past 12 months; which is the highest recorded level of visitation of all-time.
When asked, 88% itted to finding casino gambling acceptable for themselves or others. Additionally, 59% of Americans found gambling personally acceptable – coming in at an all-time high for acceptance statewide.
Responsible gambling 2024
As more and more states continue to unlock, views continue to change. Reportedly 65% of Americans say the US gambling industry is committed to encouraging responsible gaming and combating problem gambling, up from less than 40% in 2018.
This confidence is even stronger among those who engage with the industry directly, with 81% of land-based casino players and 88% of sports bettors agreeing with this statement, up from 70% and 78%, respectively last year.
For measure, operators invested $471.8m into responsible gambling operations, education and research back in 2023. Compared to 2017’s $275m, this is a large increase of 72%.
In 2024, several new responsible gaming programs or funding streams were announced in Michigan, New Jersey and the District of Columbia.
Furthermore, statewide self-exclusion programs were created or enhanced in Maine, New Jersey and North Carolina.
BonusFinder summary
Overall the US had a strong performance in 2024, inarguably the strongest performance of all time as new states unlock and records are beaten among multiple states. However, despite the increased interest in iGaming, land-based betting faces a decline in some states and verticals with retail sports betting decreasing by 23% while online increased 27% year-on-year.
