Casinos Raked In $5.3B In March

The logo of Casino supermarket is pictured in Cannes, November 9, 2019.

United States casinos just recorded their best month of revenue, with commercial gaming raking in $5.3 billion in March, which broke a previous record set at $4.92 billion in July 2021.

“It was the single highest-grossing month in commercial gaming history,” said the American Gaming Association (AGA).

The AGA’s revenue report was released on Wednesday and showed that while many industries are struggling because of inflation and supply chain woes, the gambling industry is not one of them.

The revenue reported by the AGA does not include tribal casinos on Native American reservations, as they report earnings separately but are expected to also have similarly impressive revenue.

Overall, commercial gaming revenue registered at $14.31 billion for the first three months of 2022, which is just shy of the Q4 2021 record of $14.35 billion. 32 out of 32 jurisdictions surpassed Q1 revenue from a year prior, and three—New York ($996.6 million), Florida ($182 million) and Arkansas ($147.4 million)—broke records. In New York, the revenue came from online sports betting, which became legal in January.

Nevada, the home of Las Vegas, raked in the most revenue at $3.5 billion and was among three states that broke $1 billion in revenue. Pennsylvania and New Jersey were the other two, raking in revenue of $1.3 and $1.2 billion respectively.

AGA President and CEO Bill Miller said the results of this quarter built on a successful 2021. The success from the year prior also came despite pandemic restrictions and continuing waves of COVID-19 across the U.S.

“Q1’s strong results build on the industry’s record year in 2021 despite continued headwinds from supply chain constraints, labor shortages, and the impact of soaring inflation,” he said.