$60B brought in by commercial casinos in 2022, with Strip No. 1

The casino industry trade group reported Wednesday that gross gaming revenue reached $60.4 billion, up 13.9 percent year over year — beating the previous record of $53 billion in 2021.

“That growth is almost equivalent to adding another Las Vegas Strip to the U.S. gaming market,” AGA Vice President of Research Dave Forman said during the group’s annual State of the Industry webinar.

But 2022’s record figure could grow even more. The AGA expects total U.S. gross gaming revenue to surpass $100 billion for the first time — roughly equivalent to U.S. beer sales in 2021 — once tribal gaming revenue is reported later this year.

The Strip brought in $8.2 billion last year, a 17 percent increase compared to 2021. Coming in second place was Atlantic City with almost $2.8 billion followed by the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area with nearly $2.2 billion, which moved ahead one spot to beat out Chicagoland. The Illinois-Indiana region grossed $2.1 billion in 2022.

Among the top 20 markets ranked by gross gaming revenue, three other Nevada markets made the list: Boulder Strip at No. 10 with $966.6 million, Reno/Sparks, No. 12, generating $910.7 million, and downtown Las Vegas at No. 16 with $787.1 million.

“A year ago we celebrated an incredible resurgence coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic,” AGA President and CEO Bill Miller said. “Our industry’s comeback was fueled by pent-up demand that set a high bar for 2022. And frankly, some folks thought we couldn’t replicate those 2021 results. We didn’t. We exceeded.”

Each of the industry’s three major verticals — casino slots and table games, sports betting and iGaming — reached records in 2022.

Slot games generated $34.2 billion, up 5.1 percent year over year, while table games generated $10 billion, a 13.9 percent increase compared to 2021. Sports betting revenue reached $7.5 billion, a whopping 72.7 percent year-over-year increase, that benefited from new retail and mobile sports betting markets in four states. Lastly, iGaming totaled just over $5 billion, a 35.2 percent increase, in the six markets where it’s legal.

Players getting younger

The AGA found casino visitors were trending younger since the pandemic’s onset. In 2022, the average age of a casino visitor was 42 years old, down from 50 years old in 2019.

AGA officials attributed the change to both the industry’s efforts in recovering customers after lockdowns as well as the explosion of sports betting.

“People said, ‘Well, it might have been stimulus (payments),’ in the first part of the opening, but I think it’s hard to make that argument now that we’re a year and a half beyond COVID,” Miller said.

Brendan Bussmann, industry analyst with Las Vegas-based B Global, said that fits into the industry’s pandemic recovery strategy.

“I think part of the reason you saw some of these entertainment dollars shift over the course of time is because of how the industry recovered, how we were able to respond to it and do it in a much more meaningful way than other industries did, or didn’t do,” Bussmann said.

Miller said while the trade group is concerned about the economy, he hopes 2023 will continue showing signs of recovery in international travel and the meeting and convention business.

Bussmann said the same concerns discussed a year ago — inflation and a possible economic downturn — are still in play this year, as most industry members are watching out for the tipping point.

“So far, it hasn’t (reached a tipping point) and people are still willing to do what they’re willing to do,” he said. “Until that pinch really comes, we’re still in good stead.”

McKenna Ross is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Contact her at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on Twitter.