The Handle: US Online Casino Revenue Tops $3B In Q1
March revenue alone reached a record $1.06 billion, with state tax contributions approaching $300 million
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Regulated online casinos and poker sites in the US continued their linear growth streak through the first quarter of the year, overcoming some emerging headwinds that have begun to slow the output from other forms of gaming.
March’s numbers closed the books for Q1 on another record-setting high note:
Revenue: $1,061,193,507
Promos: $134,265,409
Taxes: $287,087,315
Monthly revenue grew 17% compared to last March, a performance that looks especially strong in the context of a corresponding downturn in sports betting volume.
The iGaming industry first reached the billion-dollar revenue milestone last December and has repeated that feat in two of the three months since — only missing in the shortened February.
Quarterly revenue meanwhile surpassed $3 billion for the first time, an increase of close to 20% over Q1 2025.
A reminder of the seven states with legal online casinos:
Connecticut
Delaware
Michigan
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
West Virginia
Maine will join the roster in the coming months after Gov. Janet Mills allowed an enabling bill passed last summer to become law this year effective April 15. Nevada also has legal online poker only, but regulators do not currently publish revenue data.
Pennsylvania posts another record quarter
The Keystone State has established itself as the centerpiece of online gambling in the US and one of the most reliable markets in the country.
Here were the March vitals for iGaming:
Revenue: $330,810,608 (▲ 12%)
Slots: $277,475,171 (▲ 18%)
Tables: $51,112,715 (▼ 9.0%)
Poker: $2,222,722 (▼ 13%)
Taxes: $116,458,239
Tax revenue from sportsbooks and online casinos combined to surpass $130 million, the most of any state with these modernized forms of gambling.
Recall that Pennsylvania does not itemize its reporting by brand, and the allowance for multiple online casino skins makes it impossible to extract a breakdown from the licensee-level data. So we can only talk in statewide terms.
One obvious thing to notice in the game-level data is the disparity between tables and slots. The 12% overall growth from last March masks a 9% downturn in revenue from table games, a dip that was easily overcome by the growth in slots revenue.
Poker has meanwhile slipped slowly backward for five straight months, including a 13% year-over-year decrease in March. It was, in fact, the slowest March for online poker in Pennsylvania since its launch in late 2019.
Across Q1 as a whole, online casinos won a record $948 million from local customers.
Michigan’s mega March has it competing for top spot
Michigan had arguably the best report of the big three iGaming states. Here’s the breakdown by brand:
Total March revenue of $322 million represents 24% growth from last March to a new local record, putting Michigan right behind Pennsylvania on the national leaderboard despite a substantial population disadvantage.
FanDuel continues to impress in the iGaming arena after overtaking BetMGM to move into the overall lead last year. The two continue to trend in opposite directions too, with FanDuel hovering around its all-time peak while BetMGM conversely sinks to a new low point.
Here’s how the balance of power looks over time:
DraftKings has notably fallen out of touch with the leaders and deep into third place, having bled about 10 percentage points of market share from its peak in late 2023.
Fanatics, on the other hand, continued its steady climb through the lower ranks of the leaderboard in March, having now put Caesars in its rearview mirror to move into sixth place just behind Hard Rock Bet. It looks like it won’t be long before it’s challenging BetRivers for fourth.
Michigan’s Q1 revenue of $893 million also marks its best-ever quarter.
New Jersey just misses a record in March
Here’s how New Jersey’s March report broke down by brand:
It was a near miss, but New Jersey was the only state that fell short of its all-time iGaming revenue record in March. Its high-water mark is still just over $273 million from this past December. The string of double-digit annual growth remains unbroken in New Jersey, though, still going strong at 136 consecutive months.
FanDuel leads here too, accounting for just under a quarter of the total revenue in a competitive field. DraftKings is still the second-place brand locally, but it’s not clear how much longer it can hold that position as it continues to slip backward into BetMGM’s crosshairs.
Quarterly revenue for New Jersey’s online casinos combined to reach $783 million, down fractionally from a record Q4 2025. Local growth, it seems, is just starting to shallow out a bit.
Vitals from other iGaming states
Here are March numbers from the other three reporting markets:
Connecticut
Revenue: $78,038,730 (▲ 29%)
Taxes: $10,752,635
West Virginia
Revenue: $42,035,804 (▲ 34%)
Taxes: $6,305,371
Delaware
Revenue: $16,198,266 (▲ 58%)
Taxes: $5,344,572
All three of these markets also reported record revenue and tax collections in March.
Delaware, in particular, continues to reap tremendous benefits from its relatively young alliance with Rush Street Gaming and the BetRivers brand. Local revenue was up almost 60% from March 2025, and zooming out reveals more than tenfold growth since the start of 2024.
March sports betting reports from The Handle
US iGaming data repository
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This premium addition to the newsletter will focus on the monthly sports betting financials and other vital signs that measure the health and trajectory of the markets and the brands that make up the US online gambling industry.
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