US online gambling remains a quickly-growing industry. However, there’s no denying that the pace of growth is no longer as blistering as it once was.
From 2020 to 2021, industry-wide online casino revenue more than doubled. That didn’t happen again in 2022.
That said, all states with legal online casinos finished the year on an up note. That’s to be expected since winter to early spring is typically the strongest period for all forms of online gambling.
In most cases, the monthly gains were to the tune of a few percent. However, New Jersey did only a hair better than break even after accounting for December being one day longer than November.
All told, online casino and poker operators raked in $5.32 billion in pre-tax revenue in 2022 nationwide. That represents an increase of 38% compared to 2021. December was also the strongest month of the year, accounting for $512 million (9.6%) of that revenue.
All analysis in this article uses revenue data supplied weekly or monthly by state regulators.
Slower Growth in the Post-Pandemic Years
For most industries, any two-digit annual revenue growth figure is good. That goes double in a year of widespread economic decline like 2022.
However, the online casino industry set a high bar for itself in 2020 and 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic hurt both retail gambling and online sports betting. However, it provided a massive boost to online casinos and poker. Gamblers had few other options during the lockdowns.
Remarkably, those gains never went away. The pandemic introduced online gambling to a segment of players who had never tried it. It turned out that they liked it.
However, such rapid growth was never going to be sustainable in the long term. Every new player is one less potential, as-yet-unreached player in the population, so things will inevitably start to level off.
Almost every state active since 2020 saw slower growth in 2022 than in 2021. The lone exception is Delaware, but it had the lowest growth rate to begin with.
Gross annual revenue figures can be misleading due to differences in population and, for a state’s first year, its launch date. The accompanying graph, therefore, shows the daily average revenue per capita.
The three largest iGaming states – New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan – have grown very close in gross revenue. For 2022 as a whole, Pennsylvania edged out New Jersey with $1.67 billion in iGaming GGR to the Garden State’s $1.66 billion. Michigan trailed slightly with $1.58 billion, though it overtook New Jersey for monthly revenue in December.
However, on a per capita basis, New Jersey, as the most mature of the three, remains the top performer at nearly 50 cents per resident per day.
NJ Online Gambling Revenue Highlights – Dec 2022
New Jersey online casinos and poker rooms collected $151,455,493 from players in December. That’s a state record, but as a daily average, it’s only a 0.3% increase from November.
- Year-over-year growth in monthly revenue was down to 13.7% in December.
- Most individual licenses beat the total market performance.
- The two largest licenses, Borgata and Golden Nugget, held things back with declines of 4.5% and 3.0%, respectively.
- Third-place Resorts gained 4.6% and is virtually dead even with Golden Nugget.
- Caesars had the best month of any license in the state, up 14.8%.
MI Online Gambling Revenue – Dec 2022
Michigan has never been the number one state for monthly iGaming revenue. However, it has now beaten both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, just not in the same month.
In August 2022, it briefly claimed the number two spot from Pennsylvania, which was on a downswing. Now it has done the same to New Jersey, with $152,772,722 in December revenue, about $1.3 million more than the Garden State. That makes it seem likely that it will finally hit number one at some point in 2023.
- December was Michigan’s first month of over $150 million.
- Year-over-year growth in monthly revenue fell to 25.5% in December.
- Caesars’ market share exploded to 4.74% from 2.91%. It and FanDuel lead for year-over-year growth.
- After Caesars, Four Winds and DraftKings had the best monthly growth (11.9% and 8.9%, respectively).
- Play Gun Lake saw revenue plummet 74%, though such drops for small licenses tend to be temporary and related to a big win by an individual player.
PA Online Gambling Revenue Highlights – Dec 2022
Pennsylvania saw a total of $166,917,478 in iGaming revenue for December, pulling well ahead of New Jersey to end the year. Of course, it benefits from having a considerably larger population, at 13 million to New Jersey’s 9.3 million.
As with New Jersey, that figure represents a record. It’s also a 3.6% increase in the daily average compared to November.
- The largest license – Hollywood Casino (including BetMGM and DraftKings) – set the tone with a 6.8% revenue increase in December.
- Parx, PokerStars and Wind Creek experienced negative growth.
- PlayLive! had a solid month, up 25%.
- TwinSpires will soon shut down and vacate the Presque Isle license.
CT Online Gambling Revenue Highlights – Dec 2022
The main narrative in the Nutmeg State continues to be DraftKings’ promotional spending. That skyrocketed again in December to 132% of its gross revenue.
Its rival in the duopoly, Mohegan-FanDuel, also increased its daily average promotional spending by 17.5% in December. Even so, DraftKings outspent it by nearly a factor of nine.
- For its troubles, DraftKings managed a 3% increase in market share to 59%.
- Together, the two sites brought in $28,361,028 in December.
- That combined revenue represents a 2.1% increase in the daily average compared to November.
WV Online Gambling Revenue Highlights – Dec 2022
West Virginia is by far the fastest-growing state, showing 196% annual growth in 2021 and 83% in 2022. However, even in per capita terms, it remains the weakest market save for Delaware, though it could overtake Connecticut soon.
- The Mountain State’s three licenses produced a combined total of $12,140,822 in December.
- That was a state record and a 5.8% month-on-month increase from the November daily average.
- Mountaineer Casino was the best performer of the three licenses, whether measured in month-on-month (21%) or year-on-year (61%) terms.
DE Online Gambling Revenue Highlights – Dec 2022
- Delaware’s total revenue of $1,174,800 was a 15% improvement on the daily average compared to November.
- It was the only state not to set a record. September 2022 remains the high water mark.
- 888’s lottery monopoly contract is up for renewal. The state has opened a competitive bidding process and could potentially choose another supplier for the next decade.
US Online Gambling Revenue Summary
Here are the monthly totals and growth rates for each state in a single table.
| State | GGR - Dec 2022 | Monthly Change | Annual Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania | $166,917,478 | +3.6% | +30.8% |
| New Jersey | $151,455,493 | +0.3% | +13.7% |
| Michigan | $152,772,722 | +1.7% | +25.5% |
| Connecticut | $28,361,028 | +2.1% | +39.7% |
| West Virginia | $12,140,822 | +5.8% | +57.3% |
| Delaware | $1,174,800 | +15.1% | +8.0% |
Notes
- Monthly growth rates are normalized for the number of days in each month. That is, they reflect the change in daily average revenue, not the monthly total.
- West Virginia reports revenue weekly, not monthly. Its monthly totals are an estimate, using the assumption that revenue for partial weeks is distributed evenly between the seven days.
- Pennsylvania only reports adjusted revenue (gross revenue, less promotional spending). Bonus calculates gross slots revenue by subtracting payouts from coin in, but no such data is available for table games and poker. Therefore, actual gross revenue is probably somewhat higher than what we report.
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