Last Updated on April 17, 2026 by Team TBH
Whichever way you look at it, online gambling in the US is big business. Despite the US having a complicated relationship with all things to do with gambling, it is one of the largest and most lucrative global markets. Well, on paper, it is at least. On the one hand, it is home to the world’s most famous gambling destination– Las Vegas. However, many Americans have very limited access to online gambling, and only seven states (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, Connecticut, West Virginia, Rhode Island, and Delaware) currently allow their residents to play at online casinos for real money.
While there are moves to legalize online casinos in New York and Illinois, previous attempts have failed, so no one is holding their breath. The irony is that in the states where online casino gambling is legal, it is online casino gambling that is leading the way for growth across the sector in each state. While sports betting is more widely available across the country, it does not yield the same revenue for state coffers or shareholder returns.
Barriers to success
The biggest barrier for commercial gambling companies when it comes to conquering the US market is that it is not one market at all but 50 individual ones. Gambling is regulated at the state level, and different laws apply to almost every aspect of this form of entertainment. There is little consistency, making it difficult for international operators to achieve the economies of scale required to succeed in the market. This meant that some well-known international brands entered the market, but subsequently retreated. The gaming business is bigger than ever, so why are some companies shutting up shop, and who are the beneficiaries?
Several companies, including Betway (Super Group), SI Sportsbook (883 Holdings), and Unibet (Kindred), withdrew from the US market in 2024 due to intense competition, high customer acquisition costs, and market fragmentation. High taxes and slow iGaming legislation have not helped the situation. However, where there are losers, there are generally winners. The business is undoubtedly lucrative, so which brands are cleaning up?
Market dominance
A small group of highly-capitalized operators dominates the market. The biggest bands are overwhelmingly domestic and include:
| DraftKings |
| FanDuel |
| BetMGM |
| Caesars |
| Fanatics |
While international brands like Bet365 have a strong global reputation, brand recognition in the US is weak. The most successful operators have moved from sportsbooks to online casinos and taken their customers with them. US players tend to trust brands they already know.
Still plenty of choice
Fortunately, the market is not entirely tied up. If it were, there would be less room for new and exciting gaming opportunities. US customers do not need to take any risks when hunting out online casinos, and help is at hand from long-established, independent review sites like Casino.org. There are plenty of alternative online casinos in the US, and some of the available ones include Stake, LoneStar, CrownCoins, RealPrize, and Bet365.
While the online casino market is relatively young compared to markets like the UK or Europe, it has matured rapidly due to high fragmentation. Many operators have attempted to offer broader products and services that do not fall under the strict state gambling rules, and they seemed to be going great guns until recently.
Swept aside
Sweepstake casinos were the talk of the town last year. Operators argued that they were not gambling sites and were subject to sweepstakes and promotional laws rather than gambling laws. The main reason for this was that they operated a dual-currency system, with players using virtual currency (which was given away in bucket loads to attract players). The mechanic allowed virtual currency wins to be traded in for real-money ones. While many states accepted this loophole, California and New York banned sweepstakes casinos at the start of the year.
While that is only two out of fifty states, they are among the wealthiest and most populous in the country. The ban created a huge hole in the market, and no one knows which operators will continue to develop new and exciting games for this market. While it will continue, it has lost some of its shine for investors and developers. They had hoped to introduce a gaming product that could be rolled out nationwide, but now they are facing the same barriers as real-money operators.
A closer look at success
One cannot write about operators reaping rewards in the online casino sector without having a closer look at DraftKings. They went from a pure sports betting business to one of the largest online casino operators by leveraging their existing user base. They did this gradually and strategically. While not all its customers can legally access online casinos, those in states where it is legal experience no friction when switching between sports and casino. They made (and continue to make) concerted efforts to ensure their customers could easily try all their products.
The first thing that they did was to consolidate their DFS (Daily Fantasy Sports), sportsbook, and casino platform into a single wallet. Their customers automatically had access to all three verticals. Unsurprisingly, they offered very generous bonuses to customers who tried out online casino games. This is their most profitable vertical, and they used technology to make it the core, not a side product. They have also added horse racing and prediction markets to their ecosystems, becoming a “one-stop shop”.
DraftKings is always on the front foot, being proactive rather than reactive. They invested heavily in casino content, so that when they launched in markets, their products were exclusive and exciting. Rather than outsourcing all their content, they built their own in-house game studio, allowing them to create games the competition could not copy. They timed their online casino expansion to coincide with new markets opening and were often the first or the second to market, which allowed them to dominate from the off.
Born digital rather than adapting
While MGM and Caesars are successful operators, they missed the boat – not because they were asleep but because they were built for land-based casinos. The US digital market moved faster than they could adapt to. DraftKings and FanDuel were mobile-first, dynamic operators that outpaced the legacy giants. MGM and Caesars had to learn how to be digital, DraftKings was created digital. The traditional casino operators were wary of the online space, launched late, and had an inferior product. While they have great brand recognition, they are in a different league and have been playing catch-up since day one.
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