The American Gaming Association (AGA) has published a comprehensive report on commercial gaming revenue for the first quarter of 2021. In this sense, we highlight that across the country it reached $ 11.13 billion, an increase of 17.7% compared to the same three -month period in 2020, and 4% when comparing 2019 figures.
As reported by the AGA, after a year of the industry shutdown, commercial casinos in the United States are showing strong signs of recovery. During the first quarter, consumers began to emerge from COVID-induced isolation, boosted by increasing vaccination rates, an increasingly optimistic economic outlook and significant pent-up demand for travel and entertainment.
It should be noted that, although the revenues for January (-7.8%) and February (-14.6%) were low compared to 2020, the revenues for March climbed to $ 4.48 billion, making it the highest grossing month ever in terms of gaming revenue, an increase of 12.9% compared to the all-time highest monthly revenue since March 2019 ($ 4.00B).
AGA highlights that the sector outperformed the overall economy in the first quarter, as US GDP increased 6.4% on an annualized basis. However, the association warns that although $ 11.13 billion was generated, casinos suffer restrictions for live entertainment, dining, hotel reservations and meetings and conventions that are essential to the industry’s bottom line.
On the other hand, Q1 2021 results were 21.1% higher than Q4 2020, driven by continued reopenings and strong overall consumer spending trends.
Another noteworthy fact is that revenue from traditional casino games reached $ 9.37 billion in the first quarter of 2021, a 10.1% drop from the first quarter of 2019, but a 19.8% increase over to the last quarter of 2020.
Regarding the growing sports betting market, in the first quarter of 2021, sports betting revenue reached $ 961.1 million, up 270.2 percent year-over-year and the highest-ever grossing quarter for legal wagering on sports. For context, that is more than the $ 908.8 million that was generated by sports betting nationwide in 2019. Americans bet more than $ 12.97 billion with legal sportsbook operators in the first three months of 2021, triple the handle from Q1 2020. March also set a record for the largest handle in a single month at $ 4.61 billion.
At the same time, internet gaming revenue reached $ 784.5 million during the quarter, more than tripling revenue from Q1 2020 and representing half of annual internet gaming revenue in 2020 ($ 1.55B).
In summary, the combined revenue from sports betting and internet gaming, which in the first quarter of 2020 accounted for 5.2% of total gaming revenue, reached a share of 15.7 percent in Q1 2021 - the second highest level to date and only bested in Q2 2020 (20.3%), when most of the land-based casinos stood dormant.
Full report
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