FY 2024
In 2024, domestic gaming revenue increased by nearly $4.9bn year-over-year (6.8%), fueled largely by meaningful growth across sports betting and iGaming markets. For the full-year period, US domestic commercial casino and VGT distributed gaming markets experienced modest growth (.7% and 3.7% respectively) alongside meaningful growth in the sports betting and iGaming segments (24.1% and 29.4% respectively).
The December 2024 performance of commercial casinos was marginally higher (0.7%) than that of December 2023, and growth across all segments over the last three months increased by 5.7%.
It should be noted that sports betting revenue experienced a meaningful decline in December YoY. As this decline was experienced nationwide, it could be the result of betting trends of popular NFL games, reporting differences between states and / or an outlier event tied to a specific game. For example, not all states report handle, but for 16 states that do, the combined Dec. 2024 total handle for these states was 7.1% higher than the reported handle for the same prior year period.
The overall commercial gaming market and its segments trended up as a whole in 2024 even though numerous markets experienced declines year over year.
The segment ending the year with the most unevenly distributed growth is by far the commercial casino segment where 20 of 38 markets are below their YTD 2023 performance, with the average decline of these 20 markets at -2% YTD, with Laughlin, Nevada experiencing the highest decline at -6%. The 17 markets that have grown YoY have done so at a pace greater than that of the declining markets, reflecting an average increase of 8.3%.
Sports betting segment growth hit 24.1%* year-over-year with 25 of 31 markets experiencing YoY growth, and six markets experiencing revenue declines during 2024: Mississippi, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Montana, South Dakota and Ohio.
The iGaming segment continues to experience significant growth across all markets, experience a total segment growth of 29.4% year-over-year. However, we note that the majority of these markets are Northeastern coastal states making this segment reliant on regional economic trends.
VGT revenues were up YoY in total and across six of eight reporting markets. Louisiana continued to underperform with revenue down 1.4%, and West Virginia also experienced revenue declines of 1.1% in 2024.