International
Swedish
German
List Of Contents
- Gambling Losses By Adult Per Country
- Gambling Wins Per Country
- Alcohol And Losing - The Undeniable Correlation
Conclusion - How The Casino Industry Is Changing
Casino Market Overview
The world’s economic markets have experienced recessions, booms and some total surprises over the last few decades, but these swings and roundabouts have largely not been followed by the casino market - a market that always seems to be in perpetual growth.
Why then, has gambling been so resilient? Which casino products have been the most successful? And, are online casinos more profitable than land-based casinos? Check below to find out.
Casino Market Gross Yield - 20 Years Of (Mostly) Growth
The golden age of casinos from the 1930s to the 1980s may be a long time ago, but the growth of earnings in the casino sector has only grown in modern years with the gross gaming yield rising from 50 billion to 130 billion in just 18 years from 2001 to 2019.
There are two notable dips in 2009 and again in 2015 but the overall growth trend is generally steady and consistent including the projected growth leading into 2020.
GLOBAL CASINO MARKET GROSS GAMING YIELD (GGY)
FROM 2001 TO 2019 (IN BILLION U.S DOLLARS)*
Global Gambling By Product
Just as the amount of time spent gambling has varied, so too has the percentage of time spent on each type of casino game.
From the early 00’s to the last decade the dominant market of sports betting has generally taken the same share of the market, which is predicted to increase to 41% this year.
The 2nd most popular area, casino gambling, has slowly increased to 26% over the past decade and is projected to stick at about 25% over the next year.
Lotteries have also steadily increased with the real growth expected to carry on to 17% in 2021.
The most surprising market reduction has been in Poker, which has dropped from 19% in 2007 to a projected low of 7% in 2020 and 2021.
GLOBAL GAMBLING MARKET BREAKDOWN
BY PRODUCT CATEGORY, FROM 2007 TO 2021
Land-Based Casinos VS Online-Based
Over the last two decades, 100s of different sites offering a medley of bonuses, games and services have sprung up online, providing a substantial amount of the total global gaming market. The online gambling market is growing tremendously fast and has the potential to provide a sizable portion of the total revenue for the casino market in the future.
It’s anticipated that, in 4 years, the financial size of online gambling will double from 45.8 billion in 2017 to 94.4 billion in 2024.
SIZE OF THE ONLINE GAMBLING MARKET
FROM 2017 TO 2024 (IN BILLION U.S DOLLARS)
Land-Based Wins Vs Online Wins
In recent years we’ve seen fluctuations in how much is won online vs land-based casinos. At just 6.6% in 2008, the amount won online was relatively small in comparison to the billions being won at big casinos across the world.
However, in recent years this has reached almost 15% of all wins and, with the growth of online gambling, this number could very well increase down the line.
ONLINE GAMING GROSS WIN AS A SHARE OF TOTAL GAMING GROSS WINS
WORLDWIDE FROM 2008 TO 2020
Top Land-Based Casinos
Ever since the golden age of gambling in the early 20th Century, land-based casinos have been a staple of the entertainment industry, with America popularising the casino as a home for all things fun and using the big casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada, as venues for the biggest pop stars or comedians of the era.
Now, in 2020, there are casinos all over the world with some countries boasting triple digits that earn billions of dollars. Join us as we examine the world’s top land-based casinos by their revenue, games, hotel rooms and size.
Top Casinos By Revenue
To begin this assessment of the biggest casinos in the world today, by how financially successful they are, we have two facts that we don’t think will surprise anybody.
- This list is dominated by American Casinos
- The top 3 biggest casino companies in the world have giant resorts in Las Vegas.
Yes, those two factual nuggets aren’t going to send anyone in shock. The Las Vegas Sands company, which owns The Venetian and The Palazzo in Las Vegas, takes the prized number 1 spot for money-made, reporting a revenue of 13.8 billion in 2018.
They’re followed by MGM Resorts that own or run a cluster of casinos on The Strip, including Luxor and Excalibur, who took home 11.8 billion and Caesar’s Entertainment, owners of Caesar’s Palace, who earned 8.4 billion.
The remainder of the top casinos’ list is mostly made up of more American companies as well as several from Hong Kong, which also has a booming casino culture. Finally, Crown Resorts in Australia and Genting in Malaysia take the final top spots, earning around 2 billion each.
LEADING SELECTED CASINO COMPANIES WORLDWIDE
IN 2018, BY REVENUE (IN BILLION U.S DOLLARS)
Top Casinos By Size
We’ve already seen the biggest land-based casinos by how much moolah they manage to pull in year after year, but what about the literally biggest casinos?
In the top 8 of the world’s most colossal casinos, the battle is mainly between the United States and China.
Winstar World Casino takes the top spot with a huge 600,000 square foot resort, which is the size of 10 and a half football fields. The 2nd and 3rd positions are occupied by two casinos in Macao, China, the Venetian Macao with 546,000 square feet and City Of Dreams with 420,000 square feet.
LARGE CASINOS WORLDWIDE
BY SIZE (IN SQUARE FEET), AS OF APRIL 2019
Many casinos are much more than just gambling houses and offer all manner of luxurious entertainment and treats. Some even act as full-blown top quality hotels with thousands of rooms for its guests.
The top casino by number of hotel rooms worldwide was the Casino de Genting in the Genting Highlands, Malaysia. As of October 2019, the casino accounted for a total of 10 thousand hotel rooms in its establishment.
LARGEST CASINOS WORLDWIDE
BY HOTEL ROOMS, AS OF OCTOBER 2019
Top Casinos By Games
Casinos would be unrecognisable without the fluorescent electronic bleeping of slot machines, the dealer vs player standoffs of table games or the super tense and super fun poker tournaments, because, everything else aside, casinos would be nothing without games.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the resorts that are almost bursting at the seams with gaming goodness.
Electronic Machines
The bread and butter of land casinos are the noisy electronic gaming machines that line the main floors that usually feature numerous video slots as well as virtual table games such as roulette and poker.
The casino that’s gone truly all out on these whirring and churring machines is Winstar World Casino and Resort that’s based in Thackerville, Oklahoma that boasts almost 8,000.
Winstar is definitely the stand out example here, as the other top casinos all have similar numbers, ranging from 4,000 to 5,000.
TOP CASINOS WORLDWIDE
BY GAMING MACHINE COUNTS, AS OF OCTOBER 2018
Table Games
Electronic machines may have become the most popular games at the modern casino, but the classic table games such as Blackjack, Roulette and Baccarat are still widely played across the world.
Below you’ll be able to see the casinos that have taken the top spots for table games. There’s slightly more variance than with electronic games with the total range of table games in the top casinos swinging between 300 and 650.
TOP CASINOS WORLDWIDE
BY TABLE GAME COUNTS, AS OF OCTOBER 2018
Poker Games
Poker, like many casino table games, has innumerable amounts of variants and casinos vary in the types that they run. The most popular version is Texas Hold’em that gives players two cards each to pit them against shared cards that are dealt on the table.
This game is most popular in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom, which is shown by the below figures comparing the casinos with the most poker tables; ranging from 50 to 200 tables.
American casinos unsurprisingly take the top 5 spots with one or two Canadian and British venues making the list too.
TOP CASINOS WORLDWIDE
BY POKER TABLE COUNTS, AS OF OCTOBER 2018
Popular Casino Games
Despite the phenomenal technological advancements in the last 50 years, that have filled casinos with electronic machines and flashy fun, the actual mechanics of casino games have varied little.
Still, these snazzy game machines have indeed taken the most popular spots on casino floors, but how many table games and poker games are still active at land-based casinos today? Check below for our research on the amount of each casino game currently active at casinos worldwide.
Slot Machines
Number Of Slot Machines In The World
Slot machines have become one of the most popular games available at land-based casinos and online casinos. There are millions of physical slot machines currently in operation boasting a wide range of virtual gambling video slots.
The high point of slot machines, as shown in the graph below, was 2015, with a dip by down to the average of 1m games in 2016.
In the last 4 years, the number has not managed to reach the peak of 2015 but this shows, on average, that the devices have remained steadily popular over the last 8 years.
NUMBER OF SLOT GAMING MACHINES IN THE WORLD
FROM 2012 TO 2016 (IN MILLIONS)*
Slot Machine Type By Region
While the numbers of slot machines in operation have remained relatively steady in recent years, what types of machines are actually in operation - are the mechanical one-handed bandits still active or has everything gone digital?
By looking at the graph below it’s clear that the market is now completely dominated by Video Slot Machines. America still has a respectable amount of old school mechanical slots, making up 18% of slots in operation.
It’s no surprise that Australia has more poker machines than all other countries. Slot machines are famously referred to as ‘Pokies’ in Australia because video poker had become popular in the country with machines becoming very common in pubs, which lead to all slot machines falling into the moniker of ‘Pokies’.
GAMING MIX OF SLOT MACHINES IN CASINOS WORLDWIDE
BY REGION, AS OF THE FOURTH QUARTER OF 2018
Table Games
Though not as popular as slots, table games are still a huge hallmark of the quintessential casino gaming experience. As of May 2019, there were 59,671 table games in operation at casinos worldwide.
Table Games can also be found at other venues other than casinos such as on cruise ships or private clubs. To see a full list of where tables Games are available, see the graph below:
NUMBER OF TABLE GAMES WORLDWIDE
BY LOCATION* FROM 2018 TO 2019
Poker Games
A type of table game in itself, Poker is still extremely popular across casinos and other venues alike. As of May 2019, there were 7,653 poker tables in casinos worldwide.
Poker tables aren’t an exclusive fixture of casinos, however. They are also present at specific poker clubs, Racinos and elsewhere. For the full list of where poker tables are available, see the graph below:
NUMBER OF POKER TABLES WORLDWIDE
BY LOCATION, FROM 2018 TO 2019
When it comes to the locations where Poker Tables are active, things have certainly changed in the last year.
The numbers of active Poker Tables in Europe have exploded from over 2,000 to over 20,000, which puts the North American number of over 7,000 to shame!
Other countries outside of Europe and America certainly don’t have the same love of the game as the number of tables is, at most, only in the 100s per country.
NUMBER OF POKER TABLES
BY REGION FROM 2018 TO 2019
Gambling Wins & Losses
Life is full of ups and downs, peaks and troughs and life is like a box of chocolates. There are 100s of idioms reflecting the fact the world doesn’t always give us everything we want on a silver platter. Unfortunately, we can’t always win and with Gambling, the sad fact is you definitely won’t always win, which is why it’s so important to gamble responsibly.
Many casino games, virtual and real-life alike, have odds that favour the dealer against the player, however subtly so. Therefore, as the saying goes, the dealer always wins. Therefore, mathematically- speaking, playing games such as slots will eventually lead to a monetary gain by the casino.
Gambling Losses Per Country
So, how much do players around the world lose to casinos on average every year? You can see this by checking out the graph below.
In 2017, Australia ranked first in a list of countries with the highest gambling losses worldwide with losses of 958 US dollars per adult. Countries in the Asia Pacific region also feature prominently with Hong Kong, Singapore, and New Zealand featuring in the top five.
COUNTRIES WITH THE LARGEST GAMBLING LOSSES
PER ADULT WORLDWIDE IN 2017 (IN U.S DOLLARS)
Gambling Wins Per Country
Before you swear off gambling for life, let us pick you up with all the data on the other side of the coin, showing you the amount that people win every year.
This record of wins from 2013 shows how much players managed to take home from casinos across the world.
The United States paid out the most to players, with $74.39 billion being won and China came in 2nd place giving out 47.49 billion in total in 2013. Check below for more information:
GLOBAL GAMBLING GROSS WIN IN 2013
BY COUNTRY (IN BILLION U.S DOLLARS)
Alcohol And Losing - The Undeniable Correlation
Drinking alcohol and gambling is a fairly well-known relationship that’s endured for 100s of years but that doesn’t mean it’s a very fruitful or successful relationship. In fact, it’s likely that drinking maximises the amount a person loses while playing casino games. Investigations have determined that there’s a direct link between countries that consume the most booze are those that lose the most cash when gambling.
- Players in the Czech Republic have the lowest payout rate of 7% and the highest beer consumption per capita of 159 litres.
- At the other end of the scale, Swedish players earn a payout rate of 107% and only drink 52 litres of beer per capita.
Our advice, therefore, is to save the drink for your victory sip after you’ve enjoyed a sober and successful night of gaming!
Conclusion - How The Casino Industry Is Changing
The casino industry is booming and slowly being shaped to fit the changes in modern trends.
The online sector is growing, virtual games have become the most prominent games out there and more revenue is being made than ever before.
When it comes down to it, the habits of players aren’t changing as much as the way they play. Land-based casinos are taking in more revenue than ever before, but the online sector is giving players more options for how they can bet their hard-earned cash.
Despite this, the classic side of the casino industry has also stayed strong with many engaging with real-life, as well as virtual, table games such as blackjack, poker and roulette.
Clearly there’s room for both sides of the casino experience as we move forward towards the middle of the 21st century.
