Lara Wilson, expert contributor at Casino.ca, outlines how the United States has set a high standard for the global online casino sector to take lessons from.
The U.S. has had an undeniably significant impact on the online casino industry. Its markets have been, and continue to be, trendsetters that drive investment, innovation and reform. Without the influence of the U.S., the global iGaming market would be a very different place today.
The nation is often viewed as a role model in the online casino industry, not because it has a single nationwide market, but because it has developed one of the world’s most sophisticated regulatory systems for online gambling. States such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan have demonstrated that online casinos can be regulated safely while generating substantial tax revenue and offering robust consumer protections.
Online casinos first came on the scene in the late 1990s, and since then, Americans have enjoyed using them. For a long time, there was no clear federal framework specifically authorizing online casinos, and players were forced to use offshore gambling websites. Federal laws such as the Wire Act of 1961 and then the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 muddied the waters further.
While the UIGEA did not make online gambling in itself illegal for players, it did prohibit banks and payment processors from handling transactions connected to unlawful internet gambling. This slowed the market considerably, and many major operators left the US as a direct result.
Everything changed in 2011, when the U.S. Department of Justice issued an opinion stating that the Wire Act applied only to sports betting, not to online casino games or poker. This clarity gave states the confidence they needed to regulate intrastate online gambling. New Jersey was the frontrunner, becoming the first major U.S. jurisdiction in November 2013, when it launched its online casino market.
The repeal of PASPA in 2018 further accelerated the spread of online casino regulation. The ruling ended the federal ban on sports betting, allowing individual states to legalize, regulate and tax sports betting. It reinforced the principle that states could decide their own gambling laws, encouraging further expansion of regulated iGaming markets.
Meanwhile, in Canada, provincial online casinos had been legal since provinces gained gambling authority in 1985 and began launching government-run online platforms in the 2000s. The rapid expansion of regulated iGaming in the U.S. after 2018 strongly influenced Canada’s 2021 sports betting reform and Ontario’s decision to launch an open online casino market in 2022. The experts at Casino.ca have reviewed many of the 84 sites that now make up Ontario’s acclaimed market.
Back in the US, states including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Connecticut, West Virginia, Rhode Island and Delaware moved to authorize real-money online casino gaming. There is still no federal license or nationwide law making online casinos legal everywhere, so it remains up to each state to decide whether to allow them and how they are regulated.
Maine will soon become the eighth state to legalize online casinos, and is expected to launch its market within the next year. Its approach to regulation is proving particularly interesting, as it is taking a markedly different approach from other states. The new market will see four online casinos launch, each tethered to one of the state’s four recognized tribes. These have been given exclusive rights to partner with a single third-party operator.
Prior to this, tribes had been left out of U.S. online casino markets, despite their established ties to land-based casinos. The decision in Maine has not come without controversy, though. A federal lawsuit has been filed by Churchill Downs, which operates a local land-based casino, over the tribal-exclusivity model. The case has not yet been resolved, and could have ramifications for the future structure of the market.
Whether Maine’s attempt to reconcile online gambling revenues with local tribes will prove successful remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt that other states will be watching on with interest. If, against all odds, the Pine Tree State manages to pull off this gambit, it could pave the way for a new regulatory model, further boosting online casino adoption across the U.S.
As we have seen, the US offers valuable lessons for jurisdictions worldwide that are seeking to develop safe and sustainable online casino markets. Regulation is always a complex matter, dictated heavily by local factors, be they economic, political, or social. What is clear, though, is that the benefits of regulation outweigh the negatives associated with getting policy over the line.
The US is a leading example of how strong regulation and licensing can work in the favor of operators and players by raising standards. As per the terms of their licensing agreements, operators must comply with strict rules on anti-money laundering, responsible gambling, cybersecurity, and game fairness. These protections keep players safe, offer peace of mind, and help to build trust.
Regulated platforms in the U.S. are required to verify player identities, safeguard customer funds, and provide responsible gambling tools such as deposit limits and self-exclusion programs. Together, these consumer protections set a benchmark for how operators should act, dispelling the myth of a Wild West gambling industry.
Online gambling businesses in the U.S. are leading the way with technology and compliance innovation. Advanced geolocation and identity-verification systems are being utilized to ensure that players are physically located in legal jurisdictions and meet age requirements. The state-by-state model has pushed significant investment in compliance technology.
The economic impact of regulating gaming industries is hard to understate. U.S. iGaming markets generate billions of dollars in revenue, support jobs, and produce significant tax revenue for the states. In 2025, Pennsylvania’s online casino market produced approximately $3.46 billion in revenue, leading the nation and growing by nearly 28% year over year. That year, U.S. iGaming revenue on the whole hit $10.73 billion.
However, the U.S. model is not without its flaws. The state-by-state approach creates a fragmented market where operators must secure licenses in multiple jurisdictions, comply with different tax rates, and pay attention to varying rules. This can increase costs and slow expansion compared with countries that have a single regulator.
For countries considering online casino regulation, the U.S. experience demonstrates that a well-regulated market can generate worthwhile tax revenue, protect consumers and attract investment, while also showing the challenges of balancing local control with market efficiency. Many jurisdictions now look to states such as New Jersey and Michigan as examples of how to build sustainable iGaming ecosystems.
