February US Gaming Revenue Grew 4.6% YoY While Sports Betting Fell 6.4%

The U.S. gaming market kept growing in February, but the latest numbers also showed a sharper split inside the business. Online casino revenue kept climbing fast, retail casinos posted a steadier month, and sports betting lost ground.

Good to Know

• Commercial gaming revenue in the U.S. rose 4.6% year over year in February.
• iGaming revenue jumped 25% and reached $976.3 million.
• Sports betting revenue fell 6.4% to $1.17 billion as hold dropped and handle fell for a fourth straight month.

iGaming Keeps Carrying More Weight

February brought another strong month for U.S. commercial gaming, according to the latest Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker from the American Gaming Association. Overall revenue rose 4.6% from a year earlier, but the biggest lift came from online casinos.

iGaming revenue climbed 25% to $976.3 million. That figure now sits close to one quarter of the nearly $4 billion produced by traditional casinos. For operators, that gap keeps getting smaller, and it says a lot about where growth is coming from in U.S. gaming right now.

Retail casino results were better too. Traditional casino revenue rose 3.9%, helped by 5% growth in table game revenue. It was the first month since October that table games posted growth, which gave land-based casinos a bit of relief after a soft 2025 stretch.

Sports betting went the other way. Revenue dropped 6.4% year over year to $1.17 billion. A lower hold played a part. Sportsbooks posted a 9.24% hold, down 73 basis points from February 2025. Even so, the bigger concern sits with handle, which has now declined for four straight months.

That pattern matters because sportsbooks usually depend on volume as much as margin. Lower hold can hurt any single month, but four straight months of weaker handle points to a broader slowdown.

AGA also used the update to warn about prediction markets. The group said those platforms have cost states roughly $800 million in tax revenue, with pressure spreading to pension plans, responsible gaming programs, and other public funding streams. Prediction market sites have started offering sports event contracts that look a lot like sportsbook products, including prop-style and parlay-style trades. Yet unlike licensed sportsbooks, those operators are not licensed or taxed by state regulators.

Sportsbook operators, for their part, have publicly argued that prediction markets have not affected business targets. Still, AGA clearly sees a financial hit for states as more betting-like activity shifts outside the usual regulated sportsbook model.