Pennsylvania claims top spot among online gaming markets
Sector seen as having breakout potential as legalization spreads to more states.
Only five US states currently allow online casinos to accept wagers, but a new study says there is potential for big growth as legalization is expected to expand over the next few years.
According to research by VegasSlotsOnline News, total US online gaming handle has topped $54billion since online casinos made their debut in New Jersey and Delaware in November 2013.
However, the market has yet to fully embrace its potential, the study’s authors said, as Pennsylvania, Michigan and West Virginia are the only states to join the party.
The past 12 months have witnessed a new growth phase for US online gaming, the study found. The pandemic year saw multiple jurisdictions break online casino records, the rollout of two legal markets, and a push for legalization in other states.
Gambling operators already have their eyes on American jurisdictions with high legalization potential, the study assessed, and they are anticipating a flourishing scenario over the next few years.
“Online casino markets across the country could soon be in a position to ‘dwarf’ handle and tax revenue figures generated by sports betting activity,” the study’s authors wrote. “Looking at the successes achieved to date, US online gaming is clearly here to stay, and its future is shining brighter.”
Ranking the current market
The study ranked the states in terms of the biggest online casino markets. The authors took the total handle data from each jurisdiction since online gaming was legalized in the individual states to estimate average yearly spend.
Where handle data was not available, the estimated handle was calculated through revenue figures and land-based casino win percentages, the authors noted. The average annual amount was generated by dividing handle by the number of years of online casino wagering in each state.
The total number of gamblers was obtained by taking the sum of core and casual gambling populations in each jurisdiction and amending it using Google Trends data. Average yearly spend per gambler was calculated by dividing the average annual handle by the estimated number of online casino players in each respective state.
Pennsylvania took the top spot by a large margin, with average annual spend totaling $6,766.15. The average Pennsylvanian gambles four times the average New Jersey bettor, the study found.
The Keystone State owes this success partly to its more recent 2019 launch date, by which time players already enjoyed easy access to highly sophisticated mobile gambling.
In second place is the even younger Michigan market at $2,024.25.
Active since 2013, the mature New Jersey online casino vertical initially failed to generate much interest. It ranks third because of low handle figures reached in the first years, with average online gaming spend of $1,507.13 per year.
West Virginia and Delaware occupy the bottom two positions with average annual spend per gambler of $782.72 and $665.94, respectively. West Virginia only rolled out online gaming in 2020, while Delaware’s seven-year-old market remained somehow limited by its state-run model.
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