The latest State of the States revenue report from the American Gaming Association, released on May 13, showed that U.S. commercial gaming generated $72 billion in revenue in 2024, a 7.5 percent increase from 2023. Last year’s total set a new all-time record for the fourth consecutive year, an impressive feat on the heels of the Covid pandemic and subsequent economic headwinds.
Of the 38 states with commercial gaming, 28 set all-time individual records last year, per the AGA. The industry contributed $15.9 billion in state and local tax revenue, also a record and an 8.5 percent YoY increase. This total did not include the federal excise tax paid by sports betting operators or other typical corporate taxes.
According to the report, 15 states saw double-digit YoY revenue gains in 2024, with two more at 9 percent. The highest climber was Washington DC, which jumped 181.7 percent after ending its sports betting monopoly in favor of a competitive market.
Conversely, eight states saw decreases, five of which were 2 percent or lower. Montana (-15 percent) was the biggest laggard, although it was also by far the smallest market with just $7.1 million in revenue.
Commercial casino revenue was $49.89 billion in 2024, a record and a 1 percent increase from 2023. This came from a total of 492 facilities across the U.S. Sports betting revenue grew 25 percent to $13.78 billion, aided by launch during the year of two new markets: North Carolina and Vermont. Handle for the year was $149.9 billion.
Revenue from legal iGaming in seven states increased 28.7 percent to $8.4 billion, including $26 million in Rhode Island, which launched last year and was the first new market since Connecticut in late 2021. The total excludes Nevada, which offers online poker only.
Overall, the results are the latest example of the growth disparities between the verticals. For several months, retail revenue has grown marginally or even declined in some cases, while sports betting and especially iGaming have grown immensely.
All seven iGaming states posted some kind of monthly revenue record in March. By comparison, the Las Vegas Strip was down 5 percent YoY for the month and is down more than 3 percent for the fiscal year.
While the record numbers are positive, other findings were not so rosy. The AGA also reported that its Gaming Conditions Index, which “indicates real economic activity in the industry, as measured by gaming revenue, employment, employee wages and salaries, executive sentiment and casino hotel RFP activity,” declined 0.9 percent YoY, which was “the largest contraction since the pandemic.”
This decline, the AGA said, was “primarily driven by weaker real wages, marginally negative sentiment and real below average revenue growth.” A survey of 28 executives from member companies showed that the aggregate sentiment was -5.6 percent for the quarter. This means that 5.6 percent more respondents gave negative answers to business outlook questions than positive.
That actually represented an increase from the last survey (-8.7 percent in Q3 2024), but near-term outlook has been significantly impacted. The AGA said that Q1 was the first time since the survey started in 2021 where more executives reported a negative present business situation than positive – 36 percent negative versus 18 percent positive.
“Although executives are bullish on capital investments, expectations around the pace of hiring and wage growth remain muted,” the report said. “Employee wages and benefits were selected along with tax or regulatory policy changes and data protection as the top areas placing additional pressure on profit margin over the next six to 12 months.”
Long-term outlook, however, was more optimistic. Over 80 percent were neutral long term, compared to 14 percent positive and just 4 percent negative.
“Executive sentiment around future customer activity improved to its highest level since 2022 Q1, with 29 percent of executives expecting an increase,” the AGA said. “Insufficient customer demand, which was chosen as a factor limiting operations by 22 percent of executives in 2024 Q3, was only chosen by 11 percent of executives in 2025 Q1.”
Notably, the survey was conducted from March 25-April 8, meaning responses were filed before and after the “Liberation Day” tariff-related market swings in early April. A number of gaming companies saw their stocks dip significantly before edging back and the majority of CEOs have downplayed economic impacts thus far during first-quarter calls.
“Like others, AGA member companies face a landscape where consumers’ discretionary activities will be tested by tariffs on imported goods and stock market setbacks,” the association said. “However, even as near-term executive views have darkened, their longer-term outlook is more positive, reflecting hope that the current uncertainty will be resolved sooner than later.”
