The U.S. commercial gaming operations started the year with full steam to continue the growth in February. According to AGA’s Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker, the U.S. gaming industry comprising traditional casino games, sports betting, and iGaming reached $5.12 billion in revenues in February 2023.
This level represents the best market performance in February ever and marks a 14.5 percent increase over February 2022, as well as the 24th month of continuous growth. On top of that, February 2022 was the sixth month in a row with gaming revenue exceeding the $5 billion mark.
Exceeding the $5 Billion Mark:
It comes naturally that all the gaming verticals experienced the growth of operation in the best February performance of the industry in history: land-based casino facilities generated a total of $3.97 billion, sports betting reached $678.7 million, and iGaming produced $465.0 million in revenue to hit a total industry revenue of $ 5.12 billion and exceed the $5 billion mark for the sixth consecutive month. According to AGA, a 78.5 % share of land-based gaming revenue in overall revenue was driven by the sports betting seasonal decline in the month observed.
As indicated above, land-based casino slot machines and table games hit $3.97 billion in combined revenues to record an 8.0 percent increase from last year. Out of the total, slots generated $2.86 billion growing 8.4 percent over the previous year, while table games produced 9.1% higher revenue to settle at $812.2 million.
Revenue by States:
In the month of February, 29 of 33 commercial gaming jurisdictions benefited from higher revenue levels compared to the same period last year. Montana and Delaware saw their revenue levels going down by 20.6% and, respectively, 1.7% due to the fact that these are smaller markets focused on sports wagering which went into a seasonal slowdown and drove revenue figures down as well. Also, South Dakota and Louisiana saw a 3% and, respectively, 3.5% decline on a year-on-year basis, while all other states had gaming revenue levels on a steady rise.
Sports Betting Revenue Boosted by New Jurisdictions:
Sports betting market sentiment was a bit sluggish in February due to a significant slowdown driven by the end of the college and professional football seasons. Therefore sports wagering handle was $8.41 billion, which was 26.9 percent lower than in January, but still 5.8 percent higher than the February 2022 figure. The revenue declined 40.7 percent compared to January but reached $678.7 million to stand for a 71.5 % increase on a year-over-year basis.
The growth was particularly supported by the performance of newly regulated markets in Ohio, Massachusetts, and Maryland that launched sports betting to make up a total of the 29 commercial sports betting jurisdictions. The contribution of these three new markets is made apparent with AGA reporting that their sports wagering revenue increase accounted for almost half of the total gaming revenue increase from February 2022 nationwide.
Best February Performance:
iGaming operations across the country generated $465.0 million in revenues reporting around 20 percent growth across all markets over the same period last year. The February revenue levels were still 3.3 % below the record levels hit over the preceding two months but significantly contributed to the overall $ 5.12 billion revenue marking the best-performing February in the history of the U.S. gaming industry.
