American Gaming and Betting Beats Pre-Pandemic Levels, AGA Reports

The American Gaming Association’s latest results are in and the gambling industry across the United States has been improving at a good clip apparently. The Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker has shown that casino games, sports betting, and iGaming generated $13.89 billion in Q3 2021, setting a new quarterly record.

While the pandemic has been weighing down on some of the results, successful legalization moves have made it possible to diversify revenue channels. Results constituted a 53.8% increase from Q3 2020 and a 24.7% increase from Q3 2019. Basically, the US has beaten the pandemic and pre-pandemic results in one fell swoop.

Casino Revenue Beats Pre-Pandemic Levels by a Large Margin

Gaming continued to grow all throughout the year, although it registered a low point in February. Recovery has been underway ever since with commercial casinos managing to generate a total of $38.67 billion in the first nine months of the year, or up 18.5% from the revenue in 2019 and better than the 2020 results by a long shot.

The good news is that this record performance is hardly indicative of maturity. In fact, AGA believes that there is more room for growth that gambling operators in the US can expand. New commercial gaming markets are emerging in places such as Arizona, Connecticut, and Wyoming, AGA notes in its report.

As consumers continue to return to casinos, demand has been growing, with states such as New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Nevada became the highest-grossing jurisdictions in the country. Looking at the quarterly casino revenue for commercial casinos, a new record was set.

Commercial Casinos Fair Well despite Visitations Dropping

Commercial venues generated a record-setting $12.05 billion in Q3 2019, shuttering the results of Q3 2019, up 11.8% from that period. Overall, slot revenue remained strong and outpaced table games growth in the third quarter. Slots brought in 15.2% bigger revenues than Q3 2019.

Looking a the big picture, 20 out of 25 states saw their land-based casinos exceed or at least match pre-pandemic levels. The only losers were Kansas, Illinois, Michigan, West Virginia, and Louisiana, where extenuating circumstances got in the way of profitability.

However, regional casino visitations are now stabilizing, meaning that the states will most likely post a stronger last-year quarter. While the visitation numbers are still lower than previous years, those who visit casinos, AGA says, are spending more, which is enough to settle the difference. Part of this may be owing to pent-up demand for quality gambling markets.

Hope for Sports Betting and iGaming as Well

The first three quarters of the year have been beneficial for sports gambling as well. Sports betting revenue reached $886.5 million in Q3 2021 or 153.1% from 2020. There were challenges to weather this year as well, not least a fairly slim summer calendar insofar as sporting events are concerned.

Interactive gaming or iGaming also set a quarterly record, AGA noted, with $938.6 million in the third quarter of the year. In the first nine months of the year, iGaming has been able to generate $2.62 billion in revenue or a 145.4% growth from 2020. Sports revenue over the first nine months was posted at $2.74 billion, or a 306.5% increase over from 2020. This comes in the context of fairly limited landscape for iGaming relative to sports gambling.