May 2022 proved to be the second-highest month for revenue in US commercial gaming history, with combined commercial land-based casinos, sportsbooks and igaming revenues reaching $5.1bn.
Revealed by the American Gaming Association (AGA) as part of its monthly commercial gaming revenue tracker, this landmark is despite ‘macroeconomic challenges and increasingly tougher year-over-year comparisons’, with supply chain issues, labor shortages and inflation causing uncertainty around the globe.
However, AGA noted that March, April and May have provided three of the best gaming months in history, each topping $5bn.
The $5.1bn generated in May represents a 9.5% increase on the same month last year, whilst the YTD figure of £24.7bn has hiked 21% YoY.
AGA detailed that a YoY increase of 9.5% is ‘the softest growth rate since February 20221’ due to moving beyond months impacted heavily by COVID.
Breaking down the numbers by state, it was revealed that 18 out of the 31 operational gaming states live for at least one year saw revenue growth from May 2021.
Additionally, only four states are behind their gaming revenue pace at the start of 2021 after the first five months of 2022: District of Columbia (-21.2%), Kansas (-0.8%), Mississippi (-2.5%) and South Dakota (-1.9%).
However, it was caveated that Kansas, Mississippi and South Dakota emerged from COVID restrictions sooner than other states, therefore have greater revenues to catch up to from one year ago.
By gaming vertical, land-based casino slot machines and table games amounted for $4.1bn in nationwide revenue, up 1.4%YoY and marking the third highest month to date. Table games dd increase by 10.5% YoY to $873.9 whilst slot revenue was stagnant at $2.94bn.
Land-based and online sportsbook generated $555m in May from 26 operational states, marking an increase of 78.2% YoY when only 20 states were live compared to 30 plus DC today.
Combined igaming revenue from Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia reached $406.4m in May, up 30.9% YoY when igaming was live in just five states.
Remaining consistent with previous months, igaming and sports betting accounted for 18.9% of all combined commercial gaming revenue during May.
