2020 was the best year on record for the North American iGaming industry. On the one hand, the lockdowns and restrictions caused more gamblers to seek out accessible alternatives, pushing the numbers above anything seen in the past. On the other hand, more states rolled out their own regulated iGaming operations that contributed to this spectacular growth. Overall, more people used online casino sites in the US than ever before.
But the growth has continued well into the first half of this year. According to the numbers published by the American Gaming Association, iGaming is doing better than ever in the United States.
Triple-digit iGaming growth
In May 2021, the US iGaming industry has raked in revenues worth $310 million. Compared to May 2019, when the industry was still in its infancy, this represents a growth of over 700%. But even compared to last May, this number is spectacular: the vertical’s GGR (gross gaming revenue) grew by 117.3%.
In the first five months of 2021, iGaming revenues broke an all-time record – in March, they totalled $311 million. The revenues posted for May are just a million behind, showing that the vertical has true growth potential. Overall, between January-May 2021, iGaming generated gross revenues worth $1.39 billion – more than 670% more than in the same period in 2019, and 180% more than at the same time in 2020.
Land-based casinos are growing, too
At the same time, the AGA reported revenue growth across every vertical in May. Slot machine revenues in land-based casinos have grown by almost 3% year-on-year (15.7% compared to May 2019) while table game revenues, by 4.6% y-o-y (15.9% compared to May 2019). Sports betting has also seen a boost, mostly because of more and more markets being added to the landscape. Compared to both May 2019 and 2020, the growth was spectacular this May: 730%, and 919% respectively. Of course, we have to keep in mind that there were very few sports to bet on last May.
In the first five months of the year, almost every vertical has continued to grow. The one exception is table games: compared to the first five months of 2019, table game revenue has decreased by almost 12%. Still, compared to the pandemic-ridden 2020, the growth is an impressive 61%.
The revenue growth across land-based verticals was helped by the decreasing number of pandemic-related restrictions in place. Today, 18 of the 25 US states with commercial casinos are open to full occupancy. This still leaves more than half of the casinos across the US at 25 to 75% occupancy, limiting the growth of their revenues.
