The rise of online gambling in the U.S.
With the rise of digitalization across all industries it is perhaps unsurprising that online gambling has become more prevalent in recent times. The ability to place a bet or participate in a poker game from the comfort of one's home appeals to many consumers across the world. As a result, the global online gambling market size reached almost 59 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 and is predicted to grow further. Sports betting and fantasy sports are the most popular types of online gambling, and the market size of the U.S. fantasy sports sector accounted for nearly eight billion U.S. dollars in 2020.
Legalization of sports betting in the U.S.
A large share of this online industry is sports betting. The total sports betting revenue in the United States reached over 900 million U.S. dollars in 2019. Sports betting was legalized at the federal level in the U.S. in 2018, leading to each state being able to do as it pleases in regards to legislating and legalizing sports betting. When looking at a distribution of sports betting revenue by state, Nevada, home to Las Vegas, reached a revenue of over 300 million U.S. dollars making it the state with the largest sports betting revenue. It was followed by New Jersey which accounted for over 200 million. That being said, sports betting was only legalized in New Jersey in 2018, while it has been legal since 1949 in Nevada.
Las Vegas: the home of U.S. gambling
Casino gaming revenue in Nevada, reached over 10 billion U.S. dollars year-over-year from 2011 until 2019, when revenue dropped to under nine billion U.S. dollars for the first time in a decade. The individual spend per visitor to Las Vegas casinos can be very high, as evidenced in a 2019 survey of the gambling budget distribution among visitors to Las Vegas. In the survey, 32 percent of those visiting casinos in Las Vegas said that they budgeted over 600 U.S. dollars for their trip. Meanwhile, Las Vegas-based company, Las Vegas Sands was the leading casino company in the world in 2019, with revenues of over 13 billion U.S. dollars.
