A Look At The Fastest Growing Commercial Casino Markets In the United States

The casino business was booming in 2012, growing by 4.8 percent. The end result was a commercial casino market of $37.34 billion, a number not seen since 2007 before the economy took a tumble.

But not every state saw an improvement in their gross gaming revenue. In fact, the majority of the growth can be attributed to a handful of new casino properties in some emerging states.

The numbers listed below only account for gaming revenue, and don’t count the billions of dollars spent in casino’s hotels, restaurants and shops. In fact, according to a Nevada Abstract compiled by Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research, gambling revenue only accounted for 36 percent of Las Vegas casino revenue in 2012. Hotel rooms made up 25 percent, food and beverage took up 23 percent and the rest went to fringe operations.

Nevada continued to reign as the largest commercial casino market in the United States with $10.86 billion in gambling revenue (over 29 percent of the national gambling market) and was once again the nation’s top supplier of industry jobs with 170,206 (51.25 percent of nation’s casino industry). However, Nevada could only boast a modest 1.5 percent revenue increase, meaning the nation’s biggest growth came elsewhere.

Here’s a look at some data compiled by the American Gaming Association.

The Big Winners

The biggest growth was seen in Kansas, of all places. Kansas had only two operational casinos in 2011, one of which opened in December. A new property opened in 2012, giving the state a huge boost in gaming revenue, jumping from $48.48 million to $341.15 million, a gain of 603.7 percent.

Second place for growth belonged to Maryland’s three casinos, jumping by 142.6 percent from $155.71 million to $377.81 million. That market is sure to grow even bigger in 2013 thanks to the opening of new casino properties and the addition of table games.

The next big winner was Ohio, which saw a 100 percent increase in their casino market simply because it didn’t exist in 2011. In 2012, the state opened four new properties in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo and Columbus, bringing in a total of $429.83 million. The rest of the top five was rounded out by Maine, which grew by 66.9 percent to $99.22 million and New York, which grew by 43.1 percent to $1.8 billion thanks to additional casinos.

The Big Losers

For the fourth year in a row, New Jersey casinos suffered from the biggest decline in commercial casino revenue. The 2012 figures fell by 8 percent to $3.05 billion from $3.32 billion. That’s a far cry from New Jersey’s peak in 2006, when that state took in $5.219 billion.

Delaware was also hit hard by growth in the Northeast by Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York, losing 4.7 percent and dropping their market down to $526.67 million. The hits will only continue in the coming years when Massachusetts opens their own assortment of casinos.

The four new casinos in Ohio were a big boost to the local economy, but had the opposite effect in neighboring Indiana, which saw its revenue figure tumble to $2.61 billion from $2.72 billion, a loss of 4 percent. Considering how dependent the state is on casino tax revenue, some Indiana legislators are looking to expand gaming offerings. The bottom five was rounded out by New Mexico and Missouri, which lost 3 percent and 2.2 percent, respectively.

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