USA Commercial Casino Industry Wins $9.04bn in GGR for Q3 2020

The GGR (Gross Gaming Revenue) for USA commercial casinos in the third quarter of 2020 ending September 30th came to a total of $9.04 billion according to a ‘Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker’ report that was published by the American Gaming Association (AGA) on Monday.

While the figure is significantly higher than the $2.30 billion GGR that was collected for the second quarter of this year, representing a 294% increase, it is still 18.9% less than the numbers recorded over the same period in 2019. Moreover, gaming revenue for the first nine months of 2020 is also down by 36.4% year over year, compared to the 3% decline of the country’s GDP over the same period.

Sports Betting, iGaming, Table Games and Slot Machines Lead Q3 Growth

From AGA’s latest report, slot machine games in commercial casinos brought in the most money for the industry after generating a whopping $5.87 billion. This made up 64.9% of the overall GGR collected for Q3 2020, representing a 351.5% uptick from the second quarter of this year. Compared to 2019 however, the slot machines GGR was down by 19.3%.

Moving on to table games, the revenue from the third quarter of this year hit highs of $1.57 billion, which is a 447.2% growth compared to what the industry collected from the table games in the second quarter of 2020. Better yet, compared to Q3 2019, a 31.2% increase was observed, meaning that despite the pandemic setbacks, table game revenue continues to shine.

For sports betting the other hand, the triple-digit upward trend from Q2 was maintained, after the vertical garnered $352.3 million in total proceeds for the industry. This represented an impressive 448.8% surge when compared to the $64.2 million that the industry collected between April and June this year. This incredible movement for sports betting can be attributed to the recent debut of regulated sports betting markets in Michigan, Illinois, The District of Columbia, and Colorado. It’s also worth noting that the sports betting revenue from Q3 2020 was also substantially higher than the proceeds that were collected over the same period in 2019, to record a 47.1% increase.

The other gaming vertical that assisted the industry’s growth between July and September was iGaming where another quarter on quarter and year on year increase was observed. The Gross Gaming Revenue for Q3 2020 stood at $435.0 million, which is 8.0% higher than the $402.7 million that was racked up for the preceding quarter. iGaming observed the largest year on year increase compared to all other verticals after experience a triple-digit increase of 234.2% from the second quarter of 2019.

Over 90% Of Commercial Casinos in the USA Are Back to Business

Without a doubt, the Coronavirus pandemic has had a drastic impact on the commercial gaming industry in the USA and across the globe. While the revenue accrued for Q3 2020 hasn’t matched last year’s success in the third quarter, the US commercial casinos are well on their way to recovery as the brick-and-mortar gaming facilities continued to reopen across the states.

Based on AGA’s latest statement, at least 9 out of 10 commercial and tribal casinos in different parts of the country have already gone back to serving patrons. By 30th September, 439 out of a total of the 466 commercial casino properties in the country had already reopened, whereas 463 tribal casinos out of a total of 528 tribal casinos had resumed operations.

The 902 gaming properties opened countrywide by end of September represent 90.8% of the total casinos operating in the USA. One of the biggest drivers for revenue growth for the industry between July and September was the fact that an additional 100 casinos reopened for the three months, to join the 800 gaming houses that had resumed their business by the end of Q2 2020. The majority of the casinos however are operating at limited capacities to abide by state-imposed COVID-19 restrictions at 25 -50% of their usual occupancy rates.

Bill Miller, the President, and CEO of the AGA voiced his confidence in the promising recovery of the industry while calling on Congress for COVID-19 relief for the industry in the following statement; 

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“Our industry continues to prioritize the health and safety of our employees, customers, and communities above all else. While these quarterly results are promising, the reality is a full recovery is dependent on continued public health measures to control prevalence rates.

As state and local officials respond to current COVID-19 outbreaks with additional restrictions, urgent Congressional action to provide COVID-19 relief is even more crucial. Gaming employees and communities depend on it,”