The American Gaming Association has revealed that combined revenue from casino gaming and sports betting reached $4.85 billion in November 2021. Retail casinos reported revenue of $3.83 billion for the month. That was a 12.2% increase in November 2019, bolstering the notion that the industry has fully recovered from the pandemic.
It was down 3.6% in October, which was the best month in history for the overall US gambling industry. However, sports betting revenue reached $666.1 million in November, shattering a previous record set in October by 48.5%. Online casino gaming revenue was $345.8 million, which was a 3.2% decrease on October’s record level.
Six states now permit online casino gaming after Connecticut joined Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia last fall. There are two online casino brands in Connecticut – FanDuel and DraftKings – while there is a lottery-controlled monopoly in Delaware, the other four states have open markets.
2021 Will Go Down as a Record Year
Prior to 2021, US commercial gaming had never earned more than $4.4 billion in monthly revenue. It has now exceeded that mark for the past nine months in a row. December revenue has yet to be reported, but the total revenue for 2021 has already reached $48.34 billion. That leaves it well ahead of the previous record of $43.65 billion, which was set in 2019.
Online casino gaming revenue stands at $3.33 billion for the first 11 months of 2021. Sports betting revenue reached $3.89 billion in that time, while slots in brick and mortar casinos brought in $29.8 billion and table games earned $7.96 billion
“At the state level, 23 of 26 commercial gaming jurisdictions that were operational in November 2019 saw revenue growth over that month, with monthly gaming win only contracting in Kansas (-10.6%), Louisiana (-6.3%) and New Mexico (-9.1%),” said the AGA in its latest commercial gaming revenue tracker report.
Taken together, revenue from iGaming and sports betting accounted for 20.9% of total commercial gaming revenue in November. That is their best-ever monthly slice of the industry, apart from April and May 2020, when most casinos were shuttered at the height of the pandemic.
Nevada Leads the Charge
Nevada leads the way with $12.29 billion in revenue for the first 11 months of the year, according to the AGA state tracker. That represents a 12% increase in the same period in 2019. The Nevada Gaming Control Board today released data for the full year, showing that gaming revenue increased 25% compared to 2020.
“As expected, gaming win increased across all areas of the state, and this was the result of limited entertainment options and stimulus,” said Michael Lawton, senior economic analyst at the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
“Demand is being buoyed by healthy consumer savings, the sustained rebound of leisure travel, and the return of international flights, other than Canada and Mexico, which allowed vaccinated foreign nationals to travel to the United States beginning on November 8.”
Harry Reid International Airport attracted nearly 4 million passengers in November, including the largest number of international visitors in 21 months.
