Page 8 - Mississippi/Louisiana Gaming News - Spring, 2023

AGA industry report shows record-breaking 2022 Mississippi Gulf Coast remains fifth largest gaming market
By David Grisham
LAS VEGAS — The American Gaming Association (AGA) recently released its AGA State of the Industry report on
the heels of a record-breaking 2022. According to data compiled by the
AGA, commercial gaming revenue — encompassing traditional casino games, sports betting and iGaming — reached $60.42 billion in 2022, a 13.9 percent increase over 2021 and 38.5 percent higher than 2019.
AGA President and CEO Bill Miller and Dave
Forman, AGA
VP Research,
reflected on
the report and
delved into
the numbers
during a webinar
that marked
its release.
Miller said the
success the
gaming industry
enjoyed in
2022 surprised many by exceeding the industry’s performance in 2021. “2022 was a phenomenal year,” said Miller. “Commercial and tribal gaming revenue is likely to exceed $100 billion for the full year of 2022 when the tribal numbers are reported later this year... What’s more impressive is we did this while international visitation, business travel and conventions were still recovering.”
Forman broke down some of the numbers from the report, saying
that although tribal revenue won’t be available for several months, revenue sharing data from Oklahoma shows the traditional gaming and tribal properties grew about 6%. “They’re in line with what we saw with commercial revenue growth and traditional casino floor games, so taken together, the entire U.S. gaming industry likely generated more than $100 billion in gaming revenue last year, putting gaming about in line with (national) beer sales.”
“When it comes to overall consumer spending, looking across the commercial verticals,” Forman continued, “brick and mortar casinos generated nearly $48
TOP COMMERCIAL GAMING MARKETS
In 2022, 14 of the top 20 commercial casino gaming markets posted revenue growth compared to the previous year. After a turbulent two years with markets rising and falling largely due to varying pandemic restrictions, market rankings stabilized in 2022. The Mississippi Gulf Coast remains ranked as the fifth largest gaming market, while the Tunica/Lula area fell from 17th to 19th.
Bill Miller
8MISSISSIPPI GAMING NEWS SPRING 2023
billion in revenue while sports betting brought in $7.5 billion, and iGaming
just over $5 billion. Taking a closer look, traditional brick and mortar slot revenue totaled $34.2 billion in 2022, up 5.1% from 2021, and table games generated $10 billion, up 14% from the previous year. Both are new annual records.”
The AGA VP of research noted that all but four states saw revenue increase in 2022. Kansas and Michigan saw traditional gaming revenue decline slightly by less than a percentage point while Mississippi was down 3.6%
and South Dakota was down 2.6%. “Both those states had reopened and eliminated pandemic restrictions earlier than others in 2021, so they faced tougher comparisons than others,” he explained.
According to the Mississippi Department of Revenue, gross gaming revenue in Mississippi for 2022 was down slightly at $2,563,639,216 compared to $2,670,560,514 in
2021. The big jump in revenue that casinos elsewhere in the country experienced in 2022 was enjoyed by Mississippi casinos in 2021, when casinos in the Magnolia State opened
for business with fewer restrictions and experienced a whopping 48.6% jump in revenue compared to the previous year — about $2.6 billion in 2021 vs. close to $1.8 billion in 2020. The numbers tell the story: 2021, a year that saw Gulf Coast casinos setting an all-time revenue record of $1.6 billion, was a hard act to follow for Mississippi casinos.
In 2022, the Mississippi Gulf Coast