High Stakes in the US: A Whopping $66.5 Billion Bet in 2023

Looks like the US hit the jackpot again, folks! Casinos across the country scored a hat trick with a third consecutive year of mad growth, thanks to sports betting hitting almost $11 billion last year.

Hit Me with Those Vegas Lights: A cool $8.83 billion was thrown down in Sin City in 2023.

Let me tell you, the American casino scene was on fire in 2023. We're talking a monumental leap in revenue that left last year's numbers in the dust. Slot machines, table games, sports betting, and even mobile casino games raked in a jaw-dropping $66.5 billion. That's 10% higher than 2022, and this scoop comes straight from the American Gaming Association's latest Info.

It's not just a one-off; this is the third year in a row where US casinos have been laughing all the way to the bank, setting new records. And the secret sauce? More states are saying "Yes" to more gambling options. Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Ohio, I'm looking at you – they all opened their doors to new sports betting markets in 2023. Plus, more Americans are catching the gambling bug. We're talking about 41% of adults - that's over a whopping 102 million people - walking into casinos last year, up from 34% in 2022. (Though, we're still not beating the pre-pandemic days when 44% of adults hit the casinos in 2019.) Here's a kicker: gamblers are getting younger, with the average age dropping to 42 from 50 just four years ago.

Brendan Bussmann from B Global, the guys who know everything about gaming and hospitality, said this new revenue record is solid proof that the gambling industry is tough as nails. "It shows gaming is a mainstream form of entertainment across the country and continues to grow and persevere through various economic forces," Bussmann claims.

Sports betting? It's a home run in 38 states, plus Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., and it's not slowing down. This year it brought in $10.92 billion, which is 44.5% more than 2022's record. If we're talking about bets placed on games, the total was an eye-watering $119.84 billion, 27.8% more than last year!

And get this: New York snagged the crown for America's sports betting king, with a revenue of $1.69 billion. (And hey, did you know that New York's got the top casino property making bank outside Nevada? Resorts World in Queens nearly hit $1 billion last year.) But let's not forget New Jersey and Illinois, close behind with just over $1 billion each in sports betting revenue. Nevada, well, they're chilling in 10th place with a mere $481.3 billion in 2023.

Now, moving over to mobile casino games, or 'iGaming' if you're industry-savvy. Only six states have it legal, but boy did it pay off – $6.7 billion in revenue, climbing 22.9% from 2022.

Even though sports betting is all the rage these days, old-school slots haven't lost their charm. They swallowed $35.5 billion of American dough in 2023. Most of the gaming revenue, like 75% of it, came from in-person gambling, totaling $50 billion. As for online gaming, that's your mobile casino games and sports betting, they're holding onto nearly a quarter of the market, with $16.43 billion.

David Forman, the research guru at AGA, says that gaming revenue in the US has shot up by 50% since before the pandemic struck. That's largely thanks to the boom in legal sports betting since 2018. It's drawing in the younger crowd to the nation's 1,000 casinos, and once they’re inside, they're not just betting on sports – they're hitting the slots, grabbing a bite, and catching shows.

"Gaming revenue growth has been on an incredible run," Forman remarks.

Now, just so you know, these impressive 2023 figures don't even account for the dough rolling in at Native American casinos. We're talking an estimated $45 billion there, per the AGA. And we're not counting the green spent on state and national lotteries, which is another hefty $100 billion. (Oh, and did you hear? DraftKings is snapping up Jackpocket, a mobile lottery outfit, for a cool $750 million.)

The Las Vegas Strip? Still the heart and soul of American gambling. Almost $8.83 billion was splurged there in 2023, a nice 7.2% bump from 2022. Atlantic City's hanging onto second place with $2.85 billion, and Chicagoland, that's including Indiana, isn't doing too shabby in third with $2.19 billion in gaming revenue.

But don't think Vegas and AC are the only places where folks are happy to drop their cash. Out of the 35 gaming jurisdictions in the country, 31 made more money in 2023 than in 2022. And 28 of those? They smashed their own revenue records.

And Bussmann throws in that both the shiny new and the old faithful casino properties are seeing their profits soar. "Gambling," he says, "is having a renaissance."

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