AGA Report May 2026: Sportsbooks and State Treasuries in the U.S. Each Had Big Boosts in 2025
The American Gaming Association on May 12, 2026 released its comprehensive, 139-page report on the state of U.S. commercial gaming - and the numbers show impressive growth.
Key Findings
Overall, gaming revenue grew 9.1% across the U.S. compared to 2024, to $78.6 billion. The result is a 15-year growth rate of nearly 80%, thanks in significant part to the introduction of the iGaming in 2013 and the massive spread of sports betting legalization in 2018.
A rise in tax rates in numerous states helped state and local governments collect an increase of 12.3% in taxes, to $17.9 billion. That figure does not include billions more paid by the industry in the form of income, sales, and other corporate taxes, nor does it reflect payroll taxes paid by gaming operators and suppliers.
Sports betting revenue grew even more strongly in 2025, up 22.6% to $16.9 billion - including a remarkable $2.6 billion by industry leader New York alone. Illinois, New Jersey, and Ohio sportsbooks also each combined for more than $1 billion in revenue.
Of the 38 states that featured legal sports betting for all of 2025, all but four set all-time records for commercial gaming revenue. Only Mississippi gaming operators took in less in 2025 than in 2024, and that drop was less than one-tenth of one percent.
Ten states had a rise in commercial gaming revenue of at least 20% last year, including New Hampshire (up 31%), Virginia (28.1%), Connecticut (27.9%), Oregon (26.5%), and North Carolina (25.9%).
A look at the national gaming leaders
In terms of volume, the leading consumer spending on gaming in 2025 was led by Nevada ($15.8 billion). Other major players came in at approximately half that value, with states like New Jersey ($7 billion) and New York ($5.7 billion).
The top 10 commercial casino and racino markets remained in the same order in revenue in 2025, led by the Las Vegas Strip ($8.6 billion), Atlantic City ($2.9 billion), the Chicagoland area in Illinois and Indiana ($2.4 billion), the Baltimore-Washington, D.C.corridor ($2.1 billion), and the New York City-area racinos at Aqueduct and Yonkers horse racing tracks ($1.6 billion).
Not including Nevada and Mississippi - which don’t report specific property level numbers - Resorts World New York City at Aqueduct remained the nation’s highest grossing commercial casino facility in 2025.
That racino received a license in December to add a full slate of live-dealer table games, the first phase of which opened in April 2026. By 2031, the site is expected to have fully operational its $5.5 billion expansion that will include a 7,000-seat entertainment venue, an enlargement of the Hyatt Regency hotel from 400 to 2,000 rooms, and a tripling of the number of casino table games to nearly 800.
Resorts World was followed in order by MGM National Harbor in Maryland; Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City; Encore Boston Harbor in Massachusetts; and Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland.
The AGA report stresses that gaming revenue does not equate to profits, since it is earned before properties pay for various operating expenses, marketing, and employee salaries.
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Online casino revenue is the biggest area of growth
According to the AGA report, the biggest jump in revenue in 2025 was iGaming, up 27.6% last year to $10.7 billion in the seven states that offer the online casino games.
The top three leading states again accounted for nearly 90% of the national total, with the leading state alone at $3.5 billion. Notably, iGaming revenue overtook brick-and-mortar casino revenue for the first time in 2025 in certain states like New Jersey.
Maine will become the eighth legal iGaming state sometime in 2026, after a bill was signed into law in January. That figure does not include Nevada, which only offers online poker and does not publicly release those presumably modest numbers.
The AGA report excluded from state gaming revenue and tax totals the revenue derived from electronic gaming devices at convenience locations such as bars and restaurants in Illinois, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and South Dakota.
Illinois has an estimated 8,861 electronic gaming device locations, followed by Nevada with 2,073 and Oregon with 2,007.
California, Connecticut, Montana, New Jersey, and New York all passed new legislation last year that prohibits sweepstakes gaming platforms that in many cases closely mimic online casinos or sportsbooks.
Regulators in other states like Louisiana, meanwhile, stepped up enforcement against such games based on their preexisting laws.
Per the AGA report, entering 2026 there were 493 commercial casino locations across 27 states and 521 tribal casinos in 29 states.
A closer look at some of the leading gaming states
Nevada
No. 1 Nevada features 227 brick-and-mortar casinos and has been the national leader in legal gambling for nearly a century.
Commercial casino revenue in the state was up only 1.2% in 2025 compared to 2024, however, as a variety of headwinds - the U.S. economy, decreases in some international tourism, extensive publicity about extremely unpopular "resort fees" among them - kept Nevada from matching the growth of the much younger gaming industry markets.
According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, tourist visitation fell 7.5% compared to 2024.
Annual table game revenue actually fell 3.3%, to $4.4 billion. The AGA report projects that the next major development in Nevada's gaming industry could be the planned 2027 opening of the Hard Rock Casino & Hotel Las Vegas at the site of the former Mirage casino-resort.
New Jersey
New Jersey's nine casinos all are located in Atlantic City, more than 100 miles away from New York City.
While the brick-and-mortar locations have featured little growth from 2022-2025, the booming online casino market has led to just over 10% total increases annually in that span. However, the casino operators only collect roughly one-quarter of the revenue from their iGaming partners.
The state featured 26 iGaming apps and 14 mobile sportsbooks in 2025.
While the $2.91 billion first-time revenue edge over the $2.89 billion collected by the Atlantic City properties may look at first like a tiny margin, a longterm trend line in favor of iGaming revenue is apparent in New Jersey.
In mid-2025, the state tax rate for iGaming revenue was increased from 15% to 19.75%, and the rate for online sportsbooks rose from from 13% to an identical 19.75%.
New Jersey lawmakers are actively analyzing how much of an impact three new New York City casinos will have on the fortunes of Atlantic City's casinos once all three are fully operational by 2031.
New York
Speaking of New York, the state has four existing commercial casinos - several of which compete for local discretionary spending dollars with tribal casinos. There also are seven "racinos," and two "slots parlors" on Long Island. State residents and visitors also have seven mobile sportsbooks as options.
It seems clear that by 2031, those three new multi-billion dollar casinos - two in Queens and one in The Bronx - will propel New York into the No. 2 spot nationally in gaming revenue. If long-stalled efforts to add iGaming ever come to fruition, New York could then set its sights on chasing Nevada for the No. 1 spot.
