Wednesday marked a banner day for legal sports betting and online casino gambling in the United States, according to the American Gaming Association.
In 2024, the AGA announced, commercial gaming revenue topped out at a record $71.92 billion, up 7.5% from the previous year. It marked the fourth straight year in which commercial gaming set an annual revenue record.
“In 2024, Americans embraced the diverse legal gaming options available to them — whether in casinos, at sportsbooks, or online — leading to another record-setting year for our industry,” Bill Miller, AGA president and CEO, said in a statement. “As we build on this success, the AGA remains committed to fostering additional growth that benefits consumers, operators, and communities alike.”
That said, during the AGA’s State of the Industry on Wednesday, Miller made it a point to address the unregulated online sweepstakes casinos industry, noting that he believes those sites essentially take advantage of a growing and more-accepted landscape of online gaming.
AGA: ‘Most universally would agree’ sweeps sites ‘are gambling’
The AGA lauded the growing legal online gaming sector in the U.S., which accounted for 30% of the country’s commercial gaming revenue last year. Specifically, online casinos saw a 28.7% spike in revenue, up to $8.41 billion generated by just seven states with regulated iGaming.
However, Miller noted that these stellar results create a larger “target” for illegal operators to home in on.
“These illegal operations,” Miller said, “exploit consumer confusion and threaten to undermine the public trust we have built over many years.”
Those comments were likely directed at offshore operators.
These next comments were likely directed at the sweeps operators:
“Then there’s the newer categories of unregulated actors that appear to bypass or circumvent state gaming, from currency exchanges to digital asset platforms. These entrants deploy legal acrobatics to avoid calling themselves betting or gambling, only then to offer products that most would most universally would agree are gambling, yet without the safeguards and regulatory constraints that build consumer trust.”
Miller: Sweeps casinos add ‘nothing of lasting economic value’
According to Eilers & Krejcik Gaming — and as shared by Howard Glaser, the global head of government affairs and legislative counsel at Light & Wonder — online sweepstakes casinos generated around $3.5 billion in revenue last year. Those operators are projected to reach nearly $5 billion in 2025.
These platforms, according to Miller, “exploit legal loopholes” in order to conduct business. Because of these “unregulated actors,” the U.S. loses out on nearly $17.3 billion in estimated revenue.
“They’re targeting vulnerable communities,” Miller said, “generating zero tax revenue to support local services, attracting crime and exploiting people who confuse them with legitimate gaming machines.”
As Miller put it, unregulated gaming such as sweeps casinos “builds nothing of lasting economic value and undermines both the industry’s integrity and the community’s well-being.”
SPGA says to stop ‘mischaracterizing an innovative category’
Following Miller’s remarks, the Social and Promotional Gaming Association (SPGA) issued a statement, emphasizing that the AGA “trotted out many of the same tired canards about social sweepstakes that self-interested critics have peddled for months.”
“Properly operated sweepstakes sites,” the SPGA said, remain legal in almost all states. Those platforms, the organization said, operate within “well-established legal frameworks” that do not exist with black-market, offshore sportsbooks, and online casinos.
Along those lines, the SPGA said that the AGA “knows its claims of irresponsible operation by social sweepstakes sites are misleading.” Members of the SPGA — which include a number of the most recognizable online sweepstakes sites — follow similar verifications, policies, and technologies of AGA members.
As stated by the SPGA:
“The AGA willfully ignores these facts because of a small but vocal cadre of members who are anti-competitive and resistant to innovation.”
The SPGA concluded its response with a call to action to the AGA.
“A new, aggressive federal administration has upended nearly every long-held assumption about the primacy of states in regulated gambling and threatened to open a 50-state federal sports betting market without ever holding a hearing or passing a bill. And that’s just in the first 30 days.
“We urge the AGA to focus on matters such as these that are genuinely relevant and pressing to the industry instead of wasting resources mischaracterizing an innovative category.”
Legal sports betting, iGaming set revenue records
Overall, as noted, the AGA reported a record-setting year for legal gambling in the U.S. What’s more, it was capped by an all-time single-quarter revenue record of $18.62 billion in Q4.
Sports betting generated some $13.7 billion in revenue last year, up from just over $11 billion in 2023. As for online casinos, in the six states with year-over-year data available, all reported record revenue totals.
In its press release, the AGA emphasized that the commercial gaming industry contributed more to state and local governments more than ever in 2024, with operators paying over $15.6 billion in gaming taxes.
“The sustained growth of legal gaming is a win for our industry and the consumers and communities we serve,” Miller said in a statement. “Every dollar of gaming revenue fuels jobs, investment, and economic growth—reinforcing why the legal industry’s expansion is so important.”