Record $60B Casino Revenue and More 2022 Gambling Statistics

US casinos saw record profits in 2022, which included $60 billion in gross gaming revenue. Slots and table games are the biggest contributors, but other gambling forms contribute to billions of dollars in profit as well.

The 2022 gambling numbers are different across the board. Some states saw massive spikes in their revenue, while others saw little growth.

Let’s take a deeper dive into the 2022 casino revenue numbers to find out more.

First, let’s look at the overall 2022 casino revenue from a broad perspective.

You might have seen a few headlines over the last year or so regarding record profits across the board. Well, those record profits exceeded $60 billion in gross gaming revenue (GGR).

That’s almost a 14% increase from 2021, which was also a record-breaking year.

The GGR between 2000 and 2019 stayed between $40 and $50 billion. US Casinos took a massive hit in 2020 and made less than $10 billion. In 2021, the GGR shot back up to an estimated $53 billion.

It wasn’t a surprise to see the increase in revenue after 2020.

In-person casinos took a massive hit due to COVID-19, with revenues falling all the way to what they were in the early 2000s.

The pandemic hit just about every in-person industry hard, and US casinos were no exception. According to the White House, the US GDP had its largest drop (8.9%) in a single-quarter in 70+ years.

In short, less people attended America’s casinos, which led to less profit being made. Now that the pandemic has passed for the most part, US casinos are back to making record profits.

The 2022 casino revenue can be broken down by state.

Connecticut legalized gambling in September of 2021 and saw a 430.1% increase in 2022. Other states that saw insane increases in revenue include Wyoming (268.5%), Arizona (252.5%), and Virginia (97%).

Interestingly enough, a few states did see a decrease in their gambling numbers from the past year.

South Dakota made $142.9 million in 2022 (-2.2%), which is about $3 million less than they made in 2021. Mississippi made about $92 million less (-3.6%), and the District of Columbia made $2.8 million less (-11.7%).

D.C might’ve had the lowest amount here, but they only made $23.7 million in revenue, way less than South Dakota and Mississippi.

Nevada is still way ahead of the pack regarding its 2022 casino earnings. Their casinos made over $14 billion in revenue, while the next highest state made a little over $5.3 billion (Pennsylvania).

This goes to show that Nevada still has the upper hand when it comes to gambling. Other states have legalized gambling, but you simply can’t beat the Silver State.

Outside of Nevada, what others are on the list of the best states to live in for gamblers?

Certain months saw massive increases in their gambling numbers from 2022 compared to 2021. January and February jumped over 30% in overall US casino revenue.

Compared to the other months’ revenue, they still rank last and second-to-last, respectively.

The growth of sports betting plays a major role here. There are more sports bettors nowadays, which means they’ll bet on the major events.

According to Fortune, there were an estimated 15.3 million new sports bettors, a 30% increase compared to recent years.

No other event in the US compares to the Super Bowl. It takes place in February, which explains the large increases compared to 2021.

According to the Legal Sports Report, the total sports handle in February of 2021 was $554,058,173. In 2022, that jumped to $780,768,853.

The summer months didn’t see as much of a spike, but they still contributed a large amount of overall US casino revenue.

Traditional gambling is responsible for the majority of overall revenue, but it doesn’t see as much growth per year compared to sports betting.

November is a good example of this. The month only saw a growth of 0.75% compared to 2021. It doesn’t have the Super Bowl, or any other major sporting event to rely on for growth.

Here are some of the biggest sporting events in terms money wagered, and as expected, none of them fall in the month of November.

The most recent data from the US Department of Transportation tells us that the summer months are the most travel-heavy. July was the busiest month in 2021, with 296.5 billion miles of travel.

January and February 2022 had over 50 billion fewer miles compared to July 2021. The more Americans travel, the less likely they are going to visit casinos.

Summer months don’t have the Super Bowl to rely on, in addition to ranking high in travel. This makes it hard for casinos to see consistent growth in those months.

There are many different ways to gamble when you visit the casino. Most players like traditional table games or slot machines, but other gambling games contribute their fair amount as well.

For example, we can look at the gambling numbers from 2022 and see that slot machines and table games generated $44.19 billion. Out of the record $60.42 billion in revenue, that comes out to more than 73% of all wagers.

That said, sports betting and iGaming have seen some impressive growth in the last year.

The total percent change for slot GGR was just +5.1%, while table games were up +13.9%. iGaming jumped up +35.2% from 2021, while sports betting saw the largest spike at +72.7%.

As you can tell, sports betting is on the rise in a lot of states. However, it has a long way to go until it reaches the level that slots and table games are at.

Gambling numbers from 2022 tell us that sportsbooks made $7.5 billion, which is more than $2 billion more than the previous year.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how that money was wagered.

Most of these gamblers prefer to bet on the game’s outcome (86%) rather than individual players. An estimated 32% of gamblers tend to bet on the underdog as well.

If you find yourself wanting to hop on the bandwagon, I recommend heading to the best sports betting sites.

Attendance is another important statistic that factors into casino revenue. The more people visit the casino, the more profit is going to be made.

According to the American Gaming Association, an estimated 34% of adult Americans visited a casino, while 42% of the adult population participated in some form of gambling. Casino visitation jumped 28% from 2021 to 2022.

Not only are these positive numbers, but US casinos also have a massive economic impact.

Over 64% of experts estimate that it has a positive impact on the U.S. economy and is an excellent source of jobs.

Men (69%) gamble nearly twice as much as women (37%), while 22% of all gamblers are between 24-35 years old. The average age of a gambler was 42.4 years old in 2022.

This is down from 2021, when the average age was 43.6.

Casino apps have made it easier for gamblers to place bets on the go.

It will be interesting to see if this impacts the future of in-person casino attendance, but the 2022 gambling data doesn’t suggest a serious problem.

We’ve seen some encouraging numbers over the last year, so it could look even better after 2023.

The 2022 gambling numbers can look a lot different on a state-by-state basis. Certain states make a whole lot more than others, but why is that?

One reason could be that certain ones allow online gambling, while others don’t.

There were only seven states that offered online gambling last year. Those states were Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

Let’s take a look at their 2022 gambling statistics to see where they rank compared to others.

As you can see, the states that also offer online gambling generally do well compared to those that don’t.

The state that made the most money in 2022 was Nevada, by far. They are the mecca of gambling in the United States and made over $14 billion in revenue.

Pennsylvania made the second-most amount of money in terms of GGR, closely followed by New Jersey. These two states made over $5 billion each in the last year.

Michigan also landed in the top five of the GGR by state, making over $3 billion.

There are three states that rank more in the middle of the pack for GGR and offer online gambling. Those states are West Virginia, Delaware, and Connecticut.

West Virginia made over $769 million, while Delaware and Connecticut made more than $415 million each.

In the end, the states that offer online gambling tend to rank highly on the list of 2022 GGR, compared to the states that don’t.

The 2022 gambling statistics are positive across the United States, but casino profits don’t always tell the full story.

It may look like it’s all sunshine and rainbows when you look at the gambling statistics regarding revenue, but that could be a little misleading.

The truth of the matter is that addiction is inevitable and is a major downside to gambling.

According to Scan Team, 148 million Americans are considered low-risk, 15 million are “problem gamblers,” and 3 million are compulsive gamblers.

Montana, South Dakota, and Nevada are the states with the highest rate of gambling addiction. Utah, North Carolina, and Maine are on the opposite end, with the lowest rates.

The average male gambler accumulates more than $50,000 in debt due to gambling. Females accumulate around $15,000 in debt, nearly one-third of the average male.

Gambling addiction can lead to a variety of problems. Outside of debt, gambling addicts can struggle with physical and mental health issues. This leads to them hurting themselves or their loved ones.

Not to mention, gamblers often dive further into their addiction and end up losing even more money. The importance of responsible gambling cannot be stressed enough.

So, what have we learned from the 2022 gambling statistics? Well, there are multiple ways you can look at it.

We have seen a large spike in casino profits over the last year. Nevada has remained the top earner, making over $14 billion in revenue.

Other states, such as Connecticut, have seen large revenue increases compared to 2021.

We’ve also noticed that most revenue comes from table games and slot machines, but the 2022 gambling numbers tell us that sports betting saw the most growth.

At the end of the day, the overall $60 billion in GGR is enough to get the point across.

Love gambling stats? Take a trip down under and check out some interesting gambling statistics for Australia.

Footnotes:

• Research and casino revenue data is courtesy of the American Gaming Association.
• Forbes provided various details for casino revenues and more.
• Details of when states legalized sports betting are pulled from CBS Sports.
• More casino revenue details are courtesy of UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research.
• Gambling addiction statistics are pulled from Scan Team.
• The US Department of Transportation provided countrywide traveling stats.
• Sports betting growth details are courtesy of Fortune.