The American Gaming Association (AGA) recently released a report on the black market, showing that Americans bet up to $673.6 billion annually through illegal gambling channels, an unregulated market that has grown by 22% since 2022, accounting for 31.9% of the national gambling market share. The black market's annual revenue is about $53.9 billion, resulting in a loss of $15.3 billion in state gambling tax revenues.
In the sub-sectors, illegal iGaming (online slots and table games) is the largest, with an estimated annual betting amount of $466.2 billion and annual revenue of $18.6 billion, growing by 38% since 2022, causing a tax loss of $4.8 billion. The proportion of players who only visit legal sites has dropped from 52% to 24%, while the proportion using both legal and illegal sites has doubled to 49%.
Illegal physical gambling generates annual revenue of $30.3 billion, with a tax loss of $9.5 billion, mainly driven by over 625,000 unregulated machines, an increase of 7.7% since 2022. The annual transaction volume of the sports betting black market is about $84 billion, with revenue of $5 billion and a tax loss of $1 billion. The black market share has decreased from 36% to 24%, but still, one-tenth of players only use illegal channels.
AGA President Bill Miller pointed out that illegal gambling erodes the legal market, endangers consumers, and plunders tax revenues, calling for increased national enforcement and international cooperation to combat offshore operators to protect the economy and public safety.
