The House Always Wins: Casinos Raked In Record Profits Last Year

2023 was a particularly good year to be a casino owner. While commercial gambling is designed to ensure that gamblers, general speaking, lose more money than they win, that was especially true last year.

Breaking down the data

According to the American Gaming Association, 2023 was the best year ever for casino profits. Here are some highlights of the stats reported earlier this week:

• The industry brought in $66.5 billion from gamblers
• That total was 10% higher than the previous year, which also set a record
• Revenue could top $110 billion when tribal-owned casino figures come in

It might seem unlikely that people would choose to gamble away so much money in 2023 of all years, considering the toll that rising prices took on millions of Americans.

And AGA President Bill Miller acknowledged that the industry wasn’t sure what the year would bring when it was just getting started.

“Inflation was high, uncertainty was in the air,” he said. “Forecasters couldn’t agree what these challenges might do to discretionary income.”

But in the end, he said that as the inflation rate began to moderate over the next several months, the takeaway from 2023 is that “American adults’ demand for gaming is at an all-time high.”

The biggest winners

Although alternatives to in-person gambling have been popping up more frequently in recent years, traditional casinos still present the biggest profits.

Slot machine revenue accounted for more than $35.5 billion last year, which was up nearly 4% compared to 2022. Another $10.31 billion came from table games for a year-over-year increase of 3.5%.

Legalized sports betting brought in nearly $11 billion, nearly $1.5 billion of which came from five states (Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Ohio) that offered it for the first time last year.

Chris Agee February 21st, 2024

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