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A succinct summary of 2024 for the regulated gambling industry in the United States is that it could have been better but it also could have gone a lot worse. It was a year befitting one of the most viral meme sensations of 2024, a pygmy hippopotamus named Moo Deng, because of Deng’s propensity to bite caretakers amid being adorable.
Positives for regulated gaming in the US in 2024 included continued revenue growth, and regulators in multiple jurisdictions cracking down on unlicensed operators. At the same time, a slowdown in the expansion of regulation, the rejection of attempts to further hasten the process to license downstate New York casino operators, and the emergence of new forms of online gaming put a damper on the year that even Moo Deng’s stodgy cuteness can’t overcome.
Revenue from online casino play swells in 2024
Some of the best news for licensed online casino operators in the US for 2024 came from their own products. Winnings for licensees in US states that regulate online casino play rose to unprecedented levels, not just breaking records but smashing them.
The year saw all three of the biggest iGaming states — Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania — break $200 million in taxable revenue simultaneously in a single month for the first time. To further demonstrate how huge these winnings got, Delaware’s iGaming revenue total for that month of September 2024 represented over a 400% increase compared to the same month in 2023.
Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania have all already crossed the $2 billion mark in iGaming winnings for the calendar year 2024 with December numbers still outstanding. When returns from Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island are added in, the nationwide total of taxable revenue from online casino licensees should surpass $8 billion.
Whether those numbers will continue to grow like Moo Deng in 2025 remains to be seen. Like Moo Deng’s keepers at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand, regulators in multiple US jurisdictions took action to try to protect these moneymakers.
Regulators come for unlicensed operators
Gaming regulators across numerous US states were active on the front of trying to limit players’ access to unlicensed online gambling channels in 2024. These efforts saw some success.
For example, offshore gaming website Bovada responded to cease-and-desist orders from gaming regulators in multiple US states over the course of 2024. Regulators’ net spread wider than just Bovada as evidenced by the Michigan Gaming Control Board’s pursuit of cessation by One Country Give in August.
License holders in states like Michigan might push for regulators to clamp down like Moo Deng on fruit in 2025. 2024 mostly failed to provide them for new markets to expand into.
Expansion hits wall in 2024
Prospects for the expansion of regulated gambling in the US didn’t look strong coming into 2024. By and large, state governments were as “unbothered” by the issue as Moo Deng lounging in a pond.
Gaming expansion fell one vote short in Alabama and a push to legalize online casino play in Maine withered. Pushes for iGaming in other states like Illinois and New York were casual at best.
While North Carolina did launch regulated online sportsbooks and voters in Missouri narrowly approved a sports betting legalization amendment to the state’s constitution, 2024 was a far cry from previous years in terms of expansion. Similar legislative inaction related to New York had a big impact.
Another attempt to accelerate New York downstate casinos falls short
In 2023, New York enacted legislation to repeal a moratorium on the state granting up to three licenses to operate brick-and-mortar commercial casinos in the southern part of New York. The motivation was to move the process along at a faster pace than Moo Deng can muster.
In 2024, there was further legislation aimed at accelerating the process even further. While the Assembly passed the bill codifying deadlines for committees pertaining to the licensing process, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed that legislation.
While the New York State Gaming Facility Location Board has committed to making decisions by Dec. 31, 2025, there is nothing stopping the Board from changing that self-imposed deadline. Additionally, the New York State Gaming Commission has established no timeline for when it might give applicants the necessary licenses to operate casinos.
All of that increases the chances that none of the new or renovated casinos in New York will open within the current decade. It also partially makes the 2023 repeal of the moratorium a moot point as the process could be moving along a similar timeline even if the moratorium had stayed in place.
While gaming companies in the US will keep an eye on what’s happening in downstate New York, they are also responding to a shifting landscape of exactly what defines legal online gambling in the US.
Industry grapples with change in 2024
Amid all the record revenue growth in 2024, other forms of online gaming emerged to create conversations about what exactly constitutes gambling online and whether existing regulatory structures account for different products. Examples of these growing verticals include daily fantasy sports against the house products, prediction exchange markets, and sweepstakes-based gaming sites.
Overall, the landscape is as muddled going into 2025 as ever. Delaware regulators attempted to shut down a prominent sweepstakes operator and the American Gaming Association released a letter calling for more regulators to review such websites.
At the same time, DFS against the house operators reached agreements with regulators in Colorado and Florida to continue offering their products. DraftKings launched its own version of these games, too.
In the waning days of 2024, Crypto.com launched a sporting event prediction exchange market in the aftermath of a court decision favoring exchanges making such markets available to buyers. Through the midst of all these changes, the operators of social and sweepstakes online casinos have come together to protect their businesses.
In the “Moo” year, legislators and regulators may try to provide more clarity for operators with all forms of products. How the market responds to such attempts could be the biggest “deng” to watch in 2025.
