US Online Casino Revenue Tops $1B Again In Record April
Broader economic pressures have so far had little impact on US online gambling revenues
Editor’s note: This email is free and unlocked for all subscribers. The gambling news roundup will return on Sunday.
To get The Handle content, ask me for a free trial or sign up for the annual subscription ($2,000). Every state-level post has a library of historical data so you can track trend lines. You also receive posts about prediction markets and online casino metrics. You can see all previous Handle posts here (mostly paywalled).
If you have any questions about the paywalled product, reply to this email, and I’ll get back to you! Or just email dustin@closinglineconsulting.com.
— Dustin
April was a top-three month of all time for US online casinos and poker sites, as collective operator revenue pushed past $1 billion for the third time in the past four months.
Here were the monthly vitals, with Rhode Island’s small contribution still unreported from the regulator:
Revenue: $1,003,079,472 (▲ 14%)
Promos: $118,436,440
Taxes: $274,789,274
The segment’s unbroken run of double-digit annual growth will one day come to an end, but April’s +14% report extends that monthly streak that dates all the way back to the first year-over-year comps in 2014.
Cumulative online casino revenue in the US has climbed well beyond $40 billion since regulation began, with lifetime tax contributions now exceeding $10 billion.
A reminder of the seven states with legal online casinos:
Connecticut
Delaware
Michigan
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
West Virginia
Maine will soon join the roster after the governor allowed an enabling bill passed last summer to become law this year. Nevada also has legal online poker only, but regulators do not publish revenue data.
Pennsylvania iGaming growth starts to taper off
The Keystone State remains the country’s largest online gambling market, comfortably inside the top ten for sports betting revenue while remaining perched atop the online casino leaderboard (at least for the time being).
Pennsylvania’s iGaming April report was another good one:
Revenue: $311,805,492 (▲ 9.4%)
Slots: $261,216,343 (▲ 15%)
Tables: $48,023,641 (▼ 14%)
Poker: $2,565,507 (▲ 9.7%)
Taxes: $112,707,346
Adding in the proceeds from sports betting, operators won a total of $389 million from local customers in April and paid $134 million in taxes to the Commonwealth, easily the most of any market with these expanded forms of gambling.
Although Pennsylvania’s allowance for multiple skins makes it impossible to deduce brand-level performance from the licensee-level data, there is some intrigue in the reported game mix.
Poker notably snapped out of a five-month slide in April, with $2.57M in rake representing its best performance since last June. This sudden bump can be fully attributed to the migration of the standalone PokerStars client onto the FanDuel platform, a change that seems to be working out well so far. April revenue for FanDuel Poker surpassed $1 million to lead the Pennsylvania market in its debut month.
FanDuel has been a part of Flutter (previously Paddy Power Betfair) since their merger in the immediate aftermath of the SCOTUS decision to repeal the federal ban on sports betting. PokerStars joined the family shortly thereafter in 2020 via a $6 billion acquisition of The Stars Group.
Online slots revenue in Pennsylvania grew 15% to a new April best, while table games continued their unusual skid — down 14% for a third straight month of decline. Overall growth under 10%, the smallest annual increase since launch, suggests iGaming revenue may finally be approaching maturity in Pennsylvania.
Michigan still second-biggest, but for how long?
A big month for Michigan kept its online casino market within arm’s reach of overtaking Pennsylvania for the top spot on the US leaderboard.
Here was the April breakdown by brand:
Combined revenue of more than $300 million represents a best-ever April for local operators, up more than 20% from last year. It was a top-three month overall in Michigan behind only March and last December.
FanDuel seems to have cemented itself as the iGaming leader here with a market share hovering around 25%, opening up a small but persistent gap ahead of BetMGM.
DraftKings, on the other hand, remains out of contention and essentially stuck in a tier all by itself — clearly ahead of the pack but totally out of touch with the two leaders.
New Jersey clocks in with another double-digit increase
The most mature major online gambling market in the country, New Jersey continues to report consistent growth every month like clockwork. Here’s April’s report by brand:
It’s another 12% uptick from last April to a new same-month record and, once again, another top-three month of all time for the local industry.
Worth monitoring: The top three brands all lost ground to the pack in April, with Borgata, Hard Rock Bet, and Caesars having especially decent months. As is the case in Michigan, DraftKings seems to be falling out of the fight with FanDuel in New Jersey.
As far as milestones go, April’s report moves New Jersey past $2.5 billion in lifetime tax payments from iGaming revenue.
Vitals from other iGaming states
Here are April numbers from the other three reporting markets:
Connecticut
Revenue: $72,123,488 (▲ 12%)
Taxes: $10,408,063
West Virginia
Revenue: $38,561,108 (▲ 32%)
Taxes: $5,784,166
Delaware
Revenue: $14,089,708 (▲ 42%)
Taxes: $4,445,738
April sports betting reports from The Handle
US iGaming data repository
About The Handle
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.
The fundamental goal of this series is to provide a comprehensive set of sports betting data and analysis in a timely fashion at a fraction of the price of existing enterprise products.
To that end, posts in this series will always include all relevant data, so subscribers will always have quick access to the freshest numbers in their raw form. Data comes directly from the state regulator or other record-keeping agency unless otherwise mentioned.
Feel free to reach out if there’s any data you’d like to see added to this reporting. The best version of this data delivery system will materialize over time with your feedback.