The U.S. commercial gaming industry generated nearly $72 billion in revenue in 2024, according to the American Gaming Association’s recently released “State of the States 2025.” It marks the fourth consecutive year of record-breaking revenue.
Last year, commercial gaming revenue was nearly 8% higher than in 2023, more than $15 billion in gaming tax revenue was generated by commercial gaming and 28 states set annual records for commercial gaming revenue, per the report. The record growth is not likely to stop this year, AGA Vice President of Research David Forman said.
“I think what you’re seeing, with continued growth, even (in) the traditional gaming, is that gaming represents a really compelling entertainment option for people — that games are attractive to people,” Forman said. “And so I think they’ll continue to see a lot of these things grow, but probably at a more normal rate, certainly for sports betting, going forward.”
This year, revenue trends in the first quarter and the beginning of the second quarter are already better than what people may have expected, Forman said. Each month has seen growth, he said, although at declining rates — which he attributed to economic uncertainty in March and April around tariffs and visitation.
Despite pessimism among industry executives, Forman said April turned out to be the second-best performing month of the year so far in terms of national revenue.
“People have been pleasantly surprised by consumers’ resilience, not just in the revenue numbers, but also in the states that track visitation,” Forman said. “We’ve seen about a 5.5% increase in the number of people visiting casinos over the first four months of the year.”
The industry already grew a little over 6% nationwide through April, he said, driven largely by iGaming and sports betting.
While traditional gaming is growing modestly, the “online portion of the industry,” as Forman dubbed it, accounts for about one-third of revenue; iGaming is up almost 30% so far this year, Forman said, and sports betting is also continuing to grow at high rates.
“A lot of the growth you’re seeing for both iGaming and online sports betting is coming from markets that have not been around for a while, like New York or Massachusetts,” he said, noting that in those places, some consumers are being swayed from the illegal market, and others are being reached for the first time ever.
The shift in gaming and the growth of its online channels could have really big effects, said Dave Schwartz, UNLV ombuds and gaming historian.
The Las Vegas Strip is vibrant because it is a destination of resorts with gaming, he said, where people would have to come if they wanted to gamble for an extended time.
“And over the past 40 years, we’ve seen that decouple, where it’s no longer necessary to go to a destination resort to gamble — on many things, not just casino games,” Schwartz said. “So I think that’s going to really impact how Las Vegas resorts and casinos promote themselves, and how they design and retool.”
Traditional gaming — brick-and-mortar, slot machines and table games — is still the biggest part of the industry, Forman said.
“You certainly have legal gaming available to more people than any time in American history,” Schwartz said. “So that’s going to mean you have a bigger funnel to get more people in the door for casinos.”
New games and new technology on the casino floor are keeping the casino-going experience relevant for consumers, Forman said.
“Slot machines have been evolving for over 120 years, so they’re going to continue to evolve,” Schwartz said. “And if we look at what a slot machine was 30 years ago, what we have today is very different. It’s going to continue to move in that direction and probably become even more immersive.”
In Nevada, specifically, local markets performed well in 2024, Forman said. And that trend is continuing again this year.
Though he anticipates 2025 to be another record year in terms of revenue, Forman noted that “no industry can keep growing at 10% or 20% a year,” forever, and iGaming and sports betting will eventually become slower to expand.
“I think we’re going to ultimately settle with a new normal here, in terms of the rate of growth,” he said.