The American Gaming Association has revealed that the country’s commercial gaming industry achieved its 31st consecutive month of year-over-year growth in November 2023, which also produced the best-grossing November ever.
The Formula One race in Las Vegas benefited table games in Nevada during the month, while casinos in Michigan were impacted by ongoing strikes, and online gaming underwent its “slowest rate of annual gain since before the pandemic”.
Publishing its Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker – which compiles data from state regulators across traditional casino games, sports betting and igaming – the AGA declared that the industry reported a total GGR for the month of $5.38bn, a seven per cent increase on the same month the previous year.
The association noted that gaming revenue has “stabilised” after undergoing deceleration for most of 2023, with brick-and-mortar offsetting “relatively slow” annual revenue growth in sports betting.
Year-to-date, total GGR for the US commercial gaming industry stands at $59.84bn, up 9.5 per cent in comparison to the same period the previous year. The AGA added that when December numbers in some states which have already been reported are taken into account, 2023’s GGR has already surpassed 2022’s GGR.
In addition, the association claimed that 20 of the 34 jurisdictions that were operational a year ago and had released full November data underwent YoY revenue growth.
The District of Columbia has seen the biggest YoY drop off, falling by 20.2 per cent, followed by Mississippi at 3.8 per cent, Indiana at 3.1 per cent, Florida and Oklahoma at 0.7 per cent, Missouri at 0.5 per cent and Iowa at 0.4 per cent.
Split between land-based and online operations, land-based gaming – casino slots, table games and retail sports betting – rose by 4.7 per cent YoY, while online gaming – online sports betting and igaming – improved by 14.9 per cent. However, according to the AGA, this was online gaming’s “slowest rate of annual gain since before the pandemic”.
The main reason attributed to this was a slowdown in online sports betting, as despite a record single-month handle record of $13.48bn – up 34.6 per cent YoY – the hold rate was the lowest since June 2022 at 6.3 per cent, resulting in revenue for November of $811m, up 8.3 per cent on the previous year.
During what was a busy November sports calendar, Maine also became the 32nd jurisdiction in the US to offer commercial sports betting. YTD, sports betting has generated $9.2bn GGR, up 46.6 per cent YoY.
The US’ six igaming states – Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia – generated $557.2m in November GGR, up 17.8 per cent YoY. YTD, igaming GGR stands at $5.02bn, 23.1 per cent higher than the same period last year.
Traditional casino slot machines and table games generated $4bn GGR during the month, up five per cent YoY. Slot machines rose by 2.7 per cent YoY to $2.83bn, while table games improved by 18.1 per cent to $908.8m, which is the second-best month of 2023 in the vertical.
YTD, slot machines and table games produced $45.02bn GGR, up by 2.9 per cent YoY.
In total, 15 out of 27 states offering slot machines and/or table games posted YTD revenue growth for these segments in November.
Table games benefited greatly in Nevada during November when the Formula One race was held on the Las Vegas Strip, causing a 49.3 per cent uptick. Baccarat revenue improved by 209.1 per cent to $181.4m statewide, while blackjack followed with a 26.5 per cent increase to $121.2m.
Michigan, however, saw the biggest drop in slot machines and table games GGR during the month due to the strikes at Detroit’s commercial casinos. Slot machine and table games GGR dropped by 23.9 per cent.
