AMERICAN GAMING ASSOCIATION
Gaming ’ s Record Year
With 2023 in the rearview , what trends will help shape 2024 ?
BY ANTON SEVERIN
As the gaming industry charges into spring , eagerly anticipating March Madness wagering , the launch of new gaming markets , and more , it ’ s also worth taking one last look back at the year that was for gaming . After all , what is past is prologue , and 2023 was a remarkable prologue to 2024 .
As the American Gaming Association ’ s ( AGA ) latest commercial gaming revenue report shows , the industry notched an annual revenue record of $ 66.65 billion in 2023 . The total surpasses 2022 ’ s previous high of $ 60.46 billion by 10.2 percent , marking the industry ’ s third-straight record revenue year .
What are the factors driving this sustained success , and what do they promise for the industry ’ s trajectory moving forward ? In honor of three straight record-breaking years , let ’ s examine a trio of trends across 2023 that will help tell the story of the next year in gaming and beyond .
Online Gaming Growth Isn ’ t Slowing Down Soon Online gaming grossed $ 16.55 billion in 2023 , a new high for the sector and up 44 percent over 2022 . Beyond record revenue , online gaming ’ s piece of the pie also continues to expand . For the first time , online sports betting and casino gaming accounted for a quarter ( 24.9 percent ) of total commercial gaming revenue , up from 19.2 percent in 2022 . With Rhode Island rolling out full-scale iGaming and North Carolina launching mobile wagering this March , coupled with the maturation of existing online markets , this trend looks poised to endure through 2024 .
Traditional Gaming Isn ’ t Going Anywhere While the online sector saw significantly larger yearover-year growth , brick-and-mortar casino slots and table games also saw record revenue highs in 2023 , collectively grossing $ 49.37 billion , a 3.3 percent increase over 2022 . Both slot machine and table game revenue reached individual annual records in 2023 as well , with slot revenue growing by 3.8 percent year-over-year to $ 35.51 billion and table games growing by 3.5 percent to $ 10.31 billion .
At the state level , 19 out of the 27 states that currently offer traditional casino gaming saw an uptick in combined revenue from slot and table games compared to 2022 . Impressively , 15 of these states attained new state revenue records , underscoring the widespread growth and success of the landbased casino industry across diverse regions .
Post-Pandemic Casino Visitation Trends Continue to be Favorable The record-breaking year for traditional gaming coincided with casino visitation nearing pre-pandemic
levels . According to AGA research , 41 percent of the adult U . S . population , or 102 million Americans , visited a casino for gambling or other reasons in the past year . This marks a significant increase from 34 percent in 2022 and is just shy of the 44 percent visitor rate recorded in 2019 .
Meanwhile , as more Americans patronize casinos , the Covid-era demographic shift toward younger visitors continued last year , with the average casino visitor age dropping to 42 years old . Since 2020 , the average age of casino patrons has consistently decreased year-over-year and is now nearly eight years younger than it was in 2019 .
In all , gaming ’ s strong fundamentals , diversification and positive customer trends point to continued industry success in 2024 . Whether we will see a fourth-straight record year is yet to be determined , but we can be sure that momentum is still on the industry ’ s side .
Anton Severin is director of research for the American Gaming Association .
10 Global Gaming Business APRIL 2024