In our weekly gambling news update, we look at the continued online gambling expansion in the United States. The month of July was a record-breaker for revenue, and a lot of that came from online betting. And while it’s true that most bets on the web are from sports betting apps at this time, regulators are also realizing the huge potential of internet based casinos and online slots!
The growth of online gambling in America can be traced back to a couple of major events. The first took place back in 2018 when Supreme Court opened the door for sports betting expansion. Then, the second event was when the Coronavirus pandemic closed land based casinos, which led state regulators to allow mobile sports betting. The combination of these two things sparked an opportunity for the growth of online gambling, because without even recognizing what they were doing the states proved that the industry could be successfully regulated!
However, at this time there are still just six states regulating online casino games: Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. But if you add online poker into the mix, we see these six states regulating: Delaware, Michigan, New Jersey, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. As you can see, there is still a lot of room for the growth of online gambling. And while only a few states are discussing web based casinos right now, several are talking about the regulation of online poker. Those are Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, and New York. And once they discover that casino games are more profitable than poker, well…
So, the online gambling market here in America was worth about $2.6 billion in 2021. However, industry leaders that number will swell to nearly $8 billion by 2028! No one knows which states will be next, as politics is a very complex process (we didn’t say corrupt, although we’re all thinking it). Which bills will be brought to a vote? What legislation will be passed on the coming months? No one knows for sure, but it will be a wild ride… and fun to watch.
