Annual North American Gaming Almanac Offers Bits of Good News
After two years of decline, gaming revenues in North America rose slightly in 2010 to $101.72 billion, a 1.27 percent increase from 2009, according to the recently released 2012 edition of Casino City Press’s North American Gaming Almanac. In Canada, gaming accounted for 0.86 percent of gross domestic product (GDP); in the United States, it was 0.61 percent of GDP. In the U.S. and Canada, gaming contributed 0.63 percent to GDP.
The 626-page almanac, the seventh annual edition, provides a comprehensive view of the North American gaming landscape. It opens with a snapshot of the overall North American market, including revenues, overall and for each gaming type (i.e., casino and card room, lotteries, race and sports wagering, and tribal gaming), inflation adjusted revenues, revenue growth and gaming’s percentage of both country’s GDP. Figures are provided for 2007 to 2010.
A reader can zoom in on a particular market with the province-by-province and state-by-state profiles. They feature revenue figures and other data, such as the number of gaming locations, gaming machines and table games; a legislative history for each gaming type; details on the regulatory agencies in those markets; and profiles of every gaming venue in that market, with more than 1,500 publication-wide. Throughout, there are plenty of colorful charts to illustrate the data.
The North American Gaming Almanac also contains a variety of property rankings, such as by the number of gaming machines, table games, poker tables, gaming positions (a gaming machine is considered one gaming position and a table game or poker table is considered six gaming positions) and hotel rooms, and an ownership section with more than 500 gaming property owners, providing contact information and details like ownership share.
Although both countries recovered some ground in 2010, Canada experienced the biggest rebound in total gaming revenue, rising from $12.33 billion in 2009 to $13.58 billion in 2010, a 10.13 percent spurt, making up for the 8.41 percent decrease it endured in 2009. In the United States, revenues grew from $88.11 billion in 2009 to $88.14 billion in 2010, a 0.03 percent bump.
Some other noteworthy findings are:
• Casino and card room gaming in the United States declined slightly in 2010, down 0.42 percent from 2009. That drop is an improvement over the 5.76 percent decrease in 2009 and the 3.23 percent decrease in 2008;
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• The race and sports wagering category in the United States suffered its fourth consecutive year of declining revenue, decreasing 10.53 percent in 2010, while tribal gaming, faring the best of all the gaming segments, saw a 1.26 percent increase;
• In terms of total revenues, New York, home to nine tribal casinos in 2010, took the number-three spot among the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, sending New Jersey to number four. Nevada holds the top spot, followed by California, which has 66 tribal casinos;
• The state that had the greatest total revenue increase from the prior year is Pennsylvania, followed by Alabama and then North Carolina;
• Despite decreases in revenues, casino and card room gaming retains the biggest piece of the gaming revenue pie in the United States, at 43 percent. Tribal gaming’s piece is 30 percent, lotteries is 24 percent and race and sports wagering is three percent. For North America, casino and card room gaming accounted for 46 percent of total gaming revenue, tribal gaming for 27 percent, lotteries 24 percent and race and sports wagering for three percent.
Looking at the 2007 to 2010 revenues, U.S. state lotteries appear to have weathered the recent recession and subsequent slow economic recovery better than the other gaming styles. Since 2007, it has had only one year of revenue decline, which was in 2008, when it dropped 0.04 percent. In 2010, it grew 0.69 percent. In North America overall, lottery revenues had the highest growth of all the gaming styles, increasing 2.35 percent.
Although the North American Gaming Almanac leaves out tribal gaming revenue figures in the U.S. state profiles—as they are presented in the Indian Gaming Industry Report by Alan Meister (also published by Casino City Press)—it still offers an abundance of data and information related to tribal casinos. In the United States section, for example, there is an overview of the segment with a national perspective, providing explanations of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and the types of gaming U.S. tribes are permitted by law to offer as well as legislative and regulatory highlights from 2005 to 2010.
The profiles of states with tribal casinos include a Tribal Gaming overview, which explain the legal foundation for tribal casinos in the state and recent compacts, tribal efforts to open new casinos (on and off reservation) and challenges to those efforts. Each state profile also contains the number of tribal gaming locations and the number of slots, table games and poker tables there are in tribal casinos statewide.
The rankings offer some insight on how a tribal casino’s offerings stack up against other tribal and commercial properties. For instance, the top three casinos in terms of the number of gaming machines are Foxwoods (Connecticut) with 6,500, Mohegan Sun (Connecticut) with 6,405 and WinStar World Casino (Oklahoma) with 6,200—all tribal casinos.
For more information or to purchase the North American Gaming Almanac, go to CasinoCityPress.com.