The American Gaming Association’s Commercial Gaming Tracker for May 2023 is out and revealed that the US gaming industry is continuing its two-year upwards trajectory
Commercial gaming operators generated $5.49bn in GGR in May, up 6.4% year-over-year. This also represents a slight increase on the $5.41bn made in April. From January 1 to May 31, the US industry made $27.59bn in GGR, up 12.4% YoY.
Whilst this denotes 27 consecutive months of annual GGR growth, the AGA did warn that state market performance “have begun to diverge in the face of annual comparisons that are no longer impacted by past Covid concerns”.
Sports betting was the fastest-growing vertical of gaming in May, generating $864.1m, up 41.5% YoY. This was primarily driven by sports betting launches in markets such as Ohio, Massachusetts, Kansas, and Maryland in the last year.
Slot games are the biggest generator of revenue in the US, contributing $2.98bn in revenue during May, up 1.3% YoY. Meanwhile, table games were the only vertical to decline in revenue over the last 12 months, with the $834.3m made in May down 4.8% YoY.
Online casino, however, showed 22.4% annual growth, making operators $498.4m in May.
Revenue from land-based gaming was down slightly compared to the previous year, falling by 0.6% YoY.
At the state level, 24 out of the 33 markets that were operational a year ago declared annual revenue improvements in May, with only Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, and Oregon reporting declines.
The AGA noted that most of the states listed above were impacted by slowdowns in traditional casinos, while Delaware, Mississippi, and Oregon had lower sports betting revenue compared to the previous year.
For the YTD, sports betting GGR stands at $4.58bn, up 64.9% YoY, while online casino revenue stands at $2.48bn, up 22.3% YoY.
