AGA continues to post strong results for US gambling industry

The American Gaming Association (AGA) has been diligently tracking the US gambling industry, and the trade group has another batch of strong quarterly results to report. Revenue in the third quarter of 2022 reached $15.17bn according to the Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker compiled by the organization.

The quarterly result beats the all-time high posted only a quarter before when Q2 2022 results stood at $14.81bn. This puts 2022 well on track to be the highest gaming revenue grossing year in the history of gambling in the United States, with the results from January through September already 14.7% ahead of 2021.

The results are similarly already better than the full-year revenue results for 2019, revealing a strong output by the industry and demand by consumers. AGA president and CEO Bill Miller commented on the results and noted that despite some uncertainties, the gambling industry has been performing very well:

Our sustained momentum in the face of broader economic volatility points to gaming’s overall health today and provides confidence as we look to the future.

During the reported period, slots and table games continued to drive a strong growth with the total revenue generated this way reaching $12.27bn, ahead of the results from the same period a year ago.

Sportsbooks managed to defy expectations as well, and they brought in $1.68bn in revenue, mostly because of their unexpectedly high "hold," the metric that is used to describe that the amount that sportsbooks win after all wagers are settled. This is a whopping 80.6% increase year-over-year and the highest to date.

In terms of sports betting volumes, the three quarters through September generated $4.78bn in total sports gambling revenue – ahead of the full-year amount posted in 2021 which stood at $4.34bn. This is partly because there are many more states regulating sports gambling in 2022 than there were in 2021.

The third quarter iGaming revenue was somewhat underwhelming, though, at $1.21bn, or a total of $3.62bn for the first three quarters of the year. However, only a handful of states have regulated iGaming at this point, which makes the available online casino options fewer in and between compared to sports betting and commercial casinos.

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