Analyzing the U.S. Online Casino Sector Worth Over $6B Annually

One of the great success stories of the late 20^th and early 21^st century has been the rise and rise of online gambling. From a relatively slow start, this is now a sector that is reputed to be worth around $90 billion a year and is projected to rise to be worth over $245 billion a year by 2034.

While a great deal of this revenue is due to be generated by sports betting, online casinos also make an important contribution too. In the US, it has been a slow start to the sector, but it now shows signs of rapid expansion, just as it did following the historic 2018 Supreme Court decision to allow legal online sports betting. Today, legal U.S. online casinos generate more than $6 billion in annual revenue, despite being available in only a small number of jurisdictions. That limited footprint highlights both the scale of demand and the significant headroom for future expansion.

It’s hoped that in a few years’ time, it will be the same for online casinos that, as of early 2026, are only legal in eight states. Each one of these has slightly different rules surrounding the activity, but in each case, they protect the licensed casinos from prosecution and offer protection for their players.

How we’ve reached this point

When online casinos first started to appear in the US, it was an unregulated market. This was largely because, up until then, there had been no need for any legislation either banning or allowing them.

However, concerns were raised about the proliferation of sites, and poker sites in particular. Therefore, a nationwide measure called the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act was introduced in 2006 in an attempt to close them down. Rather than target the operators themselves, this made it illegal for financial institutions like banks and credit card companies to process payments connected with online gambling.

This worked exactly as the legislators had hoped that it would. But now there is a growing acceptance that online casinos do have a place in certain states, at least.

States that are on board

At the present time, these are the eight states where online casinos are licensed by the appropriate authorities and are fully legal. For anyone looking for an operator within their state, there are a number of reliable sites identifying USA online casinos as well as sweepstakes casinos, which also operate within the spirit of the law in most states – although an increasing number are passing laws to prevent them.

Residents and visitors to the state have been allowed to play online ever since groundbreaking legislation was passed back in 2001. The state’s main online casinos are run by DraftKings and FanDuel.

There are a total of three online casinos in Delaware operated by Delaware Park, Dover Downs, and Harrington Raceway & Casino, respectively. At all three Rush Street has been entrusted by the licensing authority, Delaware Lottery, as the games provider.

With 15 permitted operators, Michigan’s is the third biggest online casino sector in the country.

You might expect that the home of the undisputed gambling capital of the country would make online casinos 100% legal, but you’d be wrong. Perhaps because of the threat they may pose to the big names like Caesars Palace and the Bellagio, only online poker sites are permitted in Nevada.

There are more than two dozen licensed online casino sites currently operating in New Jersey, which obviously doesn’t share Nevada’s approach to protecting its brick-and-mortar casinos.

Following closely behind New Jersey, Pennsylvania has 20 online casinos.

After legalizing the activity in 2023, Rhode Island’s first casino appeared online in March 2024. It’s restricted to Rhode Island residents aged 21 or over.

With around 10 online casinos, West Virginia has attracted big names like Caesars, Bet MGM and DraftKings.

There are two further states in which online casinos have now been officially sanctioned, but have yet to license any operators. Maine passed the legislation in January, so it is expected to have casinos up and running by the end of 2026. Similarly, Wisconsin legalized them in April 2026 and should follow approximately the same timeline.

Looking to the future

Over the coming years, there are likely to be many more states that decide to legalize online casinos. This is due to both a growing liberalism towards the activity and the need to benefit from the tax revenue and licensing fees that they can generate.

Even the big casino and entertainment corporations have largely decided that if they can’t beat the online operators, they’d better join them. So we can expect to see them starting to lobby individual state legislatures in the very near future. And that’s going to be very good news for anyone keen to see online gambling in their state.