The American Gaming Association (AGA) has reported its ‘Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker’ and ‘State of the States’ for Q1 2024. In total, gross gaming revenue (GGR) came to $17.67bn, with year-over-year growth of 5.6%, with March 2024 providing the industry with its second-highest revenue recording ever at $6.09m, falling just behind the all-time high of $6.35bn reported in December 2023.
Of this, state and local governments received a total of $3.8bn in taxes from gaming, up 4.4% year-over-year.
By industry
Breaking this $17.67bn GGR down by industry, slots provided the highest percentage of the total revenue, making $8.86bn, or 50.1%, of the total. Despite this, this amount is fairly stagnant from last year, having declined 0.1% year-over-year.
While it contributed the smallest total at $1.98bn, iGaming was the industry that saw the largest annual growth, up 26.1% year-over-year – in part due to the launch of iGaming in Rhode Island this quarter. This was followed by sports betting, up 22% to $3.33bn and then table games, up 3% to $2.58bn.
From a land-based and online perspective, land-based gaming made a total GGR of $12.49bn, stagnating at 0.1% growth. For the most part, this was generated via brick-and-mortar casino gaming, with slots and table gaming making $12.34bn, up 0.3%.
Online gaming, which includes online sports betting and iGaming, grew 19.3%, accounting for $5.16bn of the US’ commercial gaming GGR. This reflects a market share of 70.7% and 29.3% respectively.
This growth can be attributed to several factors, including the launch of online sports betting in Vermont and North Carolina in January and March respectively.
Sports handle was also up significantly year-over-year, totaling $36.86bn with growth of 23.3%.
By state
Looking at the states, Nevada as expected saw the highest commercial gaming revenue, making $3.9bn in Q1 2024. However, this only reflected growth of 2.3% – something outperformed by many other states.
Virginia saw revenue growth of 42.9%, the highest of any gaming state, with a total revenue of $347.4m. This was followed by Massachusetts at 37.3% (making $479m) Oregon at 36% (making $21.4m) and Connecticut at 33.1% (making $184.8m).
Montana faced the sharpest decline in gaming revenue, making $1.6m with an annual decline of 34.9%. Others that saw year-over-year declines include Ohio at –16% (making $840.2m) New Hampshire at –10.3% (making $22m) and the District of Columbia, including Washington DC at –9.5% (making $4.5m).
In terms of traditional casino revenue, Nebraska and Illinois saw the biggest change in annual growth, up over 20% and just shy of 15% respectively. Indiana saw its traditional casino revenue hit the hardest, down over 5%.
Sports betting saw New York come out on top in terms of revenue, having made $496m in the quarter. This was followed by New Jersey and Ohio, making $328m and $243m respectively.
Comments
On the results, AGA President and CEO Bill Miller said, “While gaming's momentum remains strong, 2024 will be the new baseline for future growth after several years of sports betting legalization and post-pandemic consumer shifts
“As gaming expands, more communities than ever are benefiting. We are proud to create jobs across the country, provide world-class entertainment experiences that offer safe alternatives to the pervasive illegal gambling market and generate tax revenue to support critical public projects.”
