The American Gaming Association released quarterly numbers for the country’s commercial gaming industry Tuesday. The revenue surpasses $13.89 billion and marks the highest quarterly earn ever in the United States.
According to the industry association’s Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker, not only have numbers recovered from pandemic lows by 53.85 billion but also surpass pre-pandemic revenues for Q3 2019 by almost 25%.
Revenues have been at or above $4.4 billion every month of 2021 since February, setting a trend for US commercial gaming to break all gross annual records.
Even though the current numbers are shattering records, there’s really no end in sight to the current explosion in growth with new markets opened in Arizona, Connecticut, and Wyoming. Destination markets such as Las Vegas, Biloxi, Atlantic City, and Foxwoods in Connecticut stand to increase income with a return to conventions and smaller meetings. The recently eased international travel restrictions should also play a role in growing revenue.
Sports Bets and iGaming Create Thirteen Percent of Q3 Total
The performance of iGaming over the quarter grew more than 4% from Q2 approaching $1 billion but falling short at $938.6 million.
Sports betting nearly equaled online casino revenues with $886.5 million. The lack of summer sports in the US contributed to the vertical posting lackluster numbers compared to the first to quarters. The number is still up more than 150% compared to the third quarter of 2020.
The first three quarters of 2021 saw iGaming generate over $2.6 billion, outstripping 2020 by 145.4% while sports, thanks to good turnover in the first half of the year, was up more than 300% at $2.74 billion
Combined revenue from sports betting and iGaming accounted for 13.1 percent of total gaming revenue in Q3 2021, level with the second quarter and down from 15.7 percent in the first quarter.
Top Performing States
Nevada, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania posted the highest numbers with at least 10 states that host commercial casinos posting records revenues. All told, not counting Tribal Gaming, there are 25 US states that offer commercial gambling.
Nevada, the granddaddy of all US gambling states, experienced record revenues in Clark County (Las Vegas area) at $3.16 billion, and the Las Vegas Strip itself where players left $2.06 billion in the machines, on the tables, and with the sportsbooks.
Only two states saw revenues shrink compared to the same period in 2019. Those were Kansas and Louisiana. Casinos in Louisiana saw revenues drop nearly 11% with the two-week shutdown with Hurricane Ida taking the blame for the numbers. No explanation was given for the drop in Kansas which amounted to a reduction of 1.8%. However, the state is looking at a budget surplus and may eliminate sales tax on food, thanks to the income from casinos.
Gaming revenues across the country were up nearly 5% in aggregate over the first 9 months of the year compared to the comparable period in 2019.
Visits Down, Spend Up
Only five states report footfall in their casinos – Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Missouri. Illinois was the only one of the five states to report an increase in visits over the last quarter with a 10.5% rise in admissions.
However, individual spend was up between 20% and 50.9% in those five states compared to 2019.
Regional casino visits leveled off overall but destination markets like Las Vegas saw continuing momentum with over nine million people visiting during the third quarter – the hottest 3 months for traffic since the pandemic.
Source: Third Quarter Gaming Revenue Tops Q2 for Highest Ever, AGA Revenue Tracker, November 9, 2021