- The gambling revenue numbers in the United States have risen in 2019 for a fifth consecutive year.
- The 2019 gambling revenue numbers rose 3.7% year over year to $43.6 billion.
- Nevada saw the largest gambling revenue numbers in 2019.
LAS VEGAS—Gambling revenue in the U.S. has risen once again for a fifth straight year from 2018 to 2019.
Sports betting in the United States seems to have played a role in the boost in revenue numbers as well as online gambling.
The gambling revenue numbers in 2019 which include USA online gambling were posted at $43.6 billion – a 3.7% growth from 2018.
Both retail and online sportsbooks played a decent role in the revenue numbers as the industry alone brought in $908.9 million in revenue.
That number is more than double of what they racked up in 2018 as those revenue numbers were $430.7 million.
Revenue Race
Nevada remains the sole leader of gambling revenue amongst the states that offer legal gambling as they alone brought in $12 billion in revenue last year.
The New Jersey gambling revenue, however, reclaimed second place on the list over Pennsylvania as they put up $3.46 billion in revenue – a 19.5% increase.
Pennsylvania’s gambling revenue in 2019 was $3.38 billion.
New York is another state that saw a rise in its revenue as it saw a 5.5% increase with $2.73 million in revenue.
Louisiana, on the other hand, saw a 4% decrease as they posted $2.46 billion in revenue while Indiana remained still at $2.24 billion.
Sports Betting Impact
Sports betting played a pivotal role in the gambling revenue in 2019 for states that have concluded their first full year of legal sports betting.
In Mississippi, they saw a 2.8% increase from 2018 as they put up $2.2 billion in revenue after legalizing sports betting.
Rhode Island also saw a slight increase of 1.8% to $668.4 million in 2019 after their first year of sports betting was completed.
2020 Expectations
Unfortunately, the 2020 revenue numbers are expected to end the five-year rising revenue streak as the coronavirus has shut down all land-based casinos in the country for a period of time.
“Within a span of 11 days, the commercial casino industry went from continued record-breaking growth to complete shutdown—The American gaming industry has never faced a bigger challenge. But we have proven time and again that we are resilient,” said Bill Miller, the president and CEO of the American Gaming Association.
As the country begins to start opening back up, the gambling revenue numbers could start to reshape themselves to normal.