AGA Reveals July’s Gaming Industry Financial Performance

The American Gaming Association (AGA) has published its Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker report for July, outlining key figures for the gaming industry in the United States and breaking performance indexes by state.

Based on the report, July constituted the third month in a row to have seen a dramatic increase in the overall revenue generated by the industry. However, the overall revenue year-over-year was down 23.9%.

Still, not a bad number given the nearly six-month shutdown that paralyzed casinos in many states and forced them to shut down indefinitely at first. Commercial casinos, though, did well, generating $2.83 billion in gaming revenue in July.

In fact, that was more than the three previous months combined. Another important metric is sports betting with revenue going up 18.9% in the first seven months of 2020, beating even 2019. Overall, the total amount of wagers placed was up 3.2% and was estimated at $5.88 billion.

Sports betting naturally had help from the return of several big sports events around the world and at home, including the NBA, NHL, MLB, and soccer in Europe. AGA noted that before COVID-19 suspended most operations, the sportsbooks results for January 2020 were up 235.5% year-over-year. 

The report further stated that:

“even as all commercial properties remained shuttered in major gaming states like New York and Michigan, commercial casinos generated more gaming revenue in July than in the three preceding months combined.”

States where online gambling was allowed naturally did better than counterparts which have not yet adopted mobile betting.