Casinos in Illinois Enjoy Strong Results in December and 2022

The gambling regulator in Illinois, the Illinois Gaming Board (IGB), has announced the revenue results for casinos and video gaming terminals (VGTs) for December. Although the regulator released the data regarding VGTs and casino operators, a report for the sports wagering revenue in December is yet to be released.

Judging by those figures, licensed casino operators enjoyed a strong month in December with total revenue hitting $114.4 million. This result, when compared to the $110 million result from the same period in 2021, marked an increase of 4.2%.

A breakdown of the $114.4 million in revenue reported for December reveals that the proceeds for the state were $32.5 million. Not unexpectedly, this result marked another increase when compared to the figures from December 2021. Back in December 2021, the state revenue halted at $29.9 million, which means that this December, an increase of 8.6% is observed.

Similarly, the recently released figures revealed that VGTs revenue increased year-over-year in December as well. The revenue reported by VGTs last month hit $234 million, judging by the report released by the gambling regulator. The result represented an increase of nearly 8% when compared to the $216.8 million in VGT revenue reported for the corresponding period a year ago, in 2021.

The state’s proceeds from VGTs last month increased as well. In total, Illinois collected $67.7 million in revenue from VGTs last month, up by 7.8% when compared to the $62.9 million collected for December 2021.

Visitation Increases, 2022 Revenue Soars

Besides the results for December, the IGB released data regarding the performance of casinos in the state for the whole year. In total, the casino revenue reported in 2022 hit $1.35 billion. This result, when compared to the $1.19 billion in casino revenue reported for 2021, marked a strong increase of nearly 14%.

Considering the increase in casino revenue in 2022, an increase was also observed in the state’s share, the recent figures reveal. In 2022, Illinois collected $289,985,524 from casino gambling. In comparison to the $248.7 million which was the state share reported for 2021, in 2022, the proceeds for the state increased by a solid 16.6%.

The strong performance of casino operators in 2022 was boosted by an increased number of admissions. According to the regulator’s report, for 2021, the state’s 11 casinos accepted nearly 7.7 million visitors. In contrast, for 2022, this number increased to 9,099,798 visitors. Without any doubt, the lack of COVID-related restrictions and the increase in traveling contributed positively to the casinos’ results in 2022 in Illinois.