US commercial gaming has recorded its best February ever, as data from the American Gaming Association revealed operators achieved monthly revenue of over $5bn for the sixth month in a row.
According to the AGA’s Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker, February’s $5.08bn was a 13.5 per cent increase year-over-year, with income growth across all verticals occurring but at a slower pace than January.
Alongside the half a year of over $5bn in revenue, the US commercial gaming industry has now accomplished 24 consecutive months of growth.
The AGA noted that February is “the last month of relatively soft annual comparisons due to COVID concerns,” as March 2022 was the first month that the industry topped $5bn in monthly revenue, which it has done in every month except for two since.
Out of the 33 commercial gaming states that were operational a year ago, 29 of them posted YoY revenue growth during the month. However, due to the seasonality of sports betting earnings, in-person gaming income held the largest overall revenue share at 79.1 per cent, its largest share since before the football season began last August.
The AGA stated several “smaller, idiosyncratic” sports betting states witnessed revenue declines including Montana by 20.6 per cent and Delaware by 1.7 per cent. South Dakota and Louisiana also saw revenue drops by three per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively.
Per segment, land-based casino revenue from slots and table games came in at $3.97bn, up eight per cent YoY. Broken down, slots generated $2.86bn, an 8.4 per cent increase, while table games produced $812.2m, a 9.1 per cent uptick.
Igaming operations in Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia reported $465m in revenue for February, a 20.6 per cent increase YoY with every state declaring annual growth.
However, February’s figures were 3.3 per cent lower than the revenue highs reported by the industry in December 2022 and January 2023.
In sports betting, activity slowed down following the end of the college and professional football seasons, with handle dropping by 26.9 per cent compared to January to $8.41bn, and revenue falling as well to $636.1m, a 40.3 per cent decline.
Yet, sports wagering was up on a YoY basis, with handle improving by 5.8 per cent and revenue growing by 60.8 per cent thanks to new market launches in Ohio (retail and online), Massachusetts (retail) and Maryland (online). The total number of live commercial markets has grown to 29 from 26 a year ago.
US customers are now to place an online sports wager in 24 jurisdictions, with three states – Kansas, Maryland and Ohio – launching operations over the past year. Excluding new sports betting markets and online expansions, sports betting revenue rose by 29.1 per cent YoY.
