The American Gaming Association (AGA) made its latest stop on the American Gaming Small Business Jobs Tour at Rivers Casino & Resort Schenectady in New York on Tuesday. At the roundtable event, local leaders from the community touted gaming’s strong impact in the area and across the entire state. The event highlighted the 350,000 small business jobs nationwide supported by the gaming industry and the thousands of small business jobs supported by the industry in New York.

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CBS Albany – AGA Holds Panel at Rivers

The Legislative Gazette (NY) – Senate Gaming Chair: Legal sports betting would be good for New York

The Daily Gazette (NY) – Officials see sports betting in New York’s gaming future

Washington, D.C. – The American Gaming Association (AGA) announced that Joe Maloney will join its executive team as Senior Vice President, Strategic Communications. Maloney will lead the association’s communications, research, marketing and public affairs campaigns to advance key priorities for AGA members.

“I’m thrilled to have Joe join the AGA and lead our best-in-class communications team,” said AGA President and CEO Bill Miller. “Joe is an accomplished professional who has taken on significant public affairs challenges throughout his career. We will benefit not only from his depth of experience and his tireless advocacy, but his enthusiasm and energy to hit the ground running as a champion for the casino gaming industry.”

Maloney joins the AGA in January 2024 from the Washington Commanders where he served as Vice President, Public Affairs and Strategic Communications. In this role, he spearheaded the team’s external engagement on a variety of key policy and corporate initiatives, ensuring business, community, governmental and civic leaders across the National Capital Region can engage with the organization.

“I’m honored to join the AGA and its dedicated team at this pivotal moment for the gaming industry,” said Maloney. “The future holds great promise and I’m energized by the opportunity and challenge of communicating the remarkable benefits and economic impact of legal gaming across the country.”

Maloney successfully steered the Commanders’ communications and legislative advocacy on sports betting in Virginia and Maryland, resulting in its industry-leading market access partnerships with FanDuel (Virginia) and Fanatics (Maryland). He also established the Washington Commanders as the first NFL team to join AGA’s Have A Game Plan.^® Bet Responsibly.™ public service campaign. In addition to his sports betting portfolio, Maloney led the team’s external affairs on its new stadium search, engaging elected, civic, and media stakeholders across D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. This resulted in the bipartisan introduction in the U.S. Congress of H.R. 4984, the D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act, as well as policy initiatives in Annapolis and Richmond.

Prior to the Washington Commanders, Maloney served as partner at Locust Street Group (LSG), a full-service public affairs agency headquartered in Washington, D.C., where he led the agency’s work on G2E and AGA’s Get to Know Gaming series.

This group provides a forum for discussing state initiatives to help drive an efficient regulatory reform process and speak with one voice to shape sound gaming policy. Given the Supreme Court ruling on sports betting, the working group will be tasked in the short term with exchanging information about the legislation and regulations that are pending in the states. The group will help coalesce the industry and act as a resource to navigate discussions. This will be a permanent working group that will continue to meet as needed to focus on state-level issues beyond sports betting.

WASHINGTON – The American Gaming Association (AGA) released updated Best Practices for Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Compliance today, which reflect the industry’s leading commitment to compliance and guide casinos’ efforts to protect the U.S. financial system from money laundering and other forms of illicit finance.

In 2014, gaming became the first industry to collectively establish a comprehensive set of best practices for AML compliance. The Best Practices and AGA’s Bank Secrecy Act compliance efforts have been commended by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

Based on FinCEN’s guidance and enforcement action takeaways, the Treasury Department’s National Money Laundering Risk Assessment, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s updated compliance guidelines, the updated Best Practices contain a more robust risk assessment section, as well as enhanced Know Your Customer/Customer Due Diligence measures.

“As one of the most highly regulated industries in the United States, it is imperative we take every possible step to discourage illicit behavior and safeguard the integrity of the casino industry,” said Bill Miller, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association. “Through our ongoing partnership with FinCEN, the Treasury Department, and law enforcement, our industry continues to be a leader in compliance.”

Additional updates to the Best Practices include:

• A continued commitment to a strong culture of compliance and the importance of industry engagement with government and law enforcement.
• A deepened analysis and updated recommendations regarding new and emerging forms of gaming, including the expanding U.S. sports betting market and interactive (mobile) gaming.

LAS VEGAS – A record 49 percent of American adults have a favorable view of the casino gaming industry, up four percentage points from 2018, according to new research from the American Gaming Association (AGA). The research was unveiled today at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E), the premier gathering of the global gaming industry presented by the AGA and organized by Reed Exhibitions.

The increase in favorability coincides with a surge in casino visitation and a widespread perception that the industry provides innovative, high-quality entertainment while supporting economic growth. The share of American adults that visited a casino in the last year jumped to 44 percent in 2019, up nine percentage points from 2018. This trend looks to continue as almost half of all Americans (49%) say they will visit a casino to gamble over the next 12 months, up from 41 percent in 2018.

“The favorability of our industry has never been higher,” said Bill Miller, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association. “As gaming expands across the U.S. and more Americans engage with our industry’s offerings, they see firsthand gaming’s positive impact on local economies and its value as a community partner. I’m committed to continuing the association’s work to translate gaming’s vast popularity into political capital, one of my top priorities for AGA.”

Additional highlights from the survey include:

• Nearly half of Americans (49%) say that casinos help the communities where they are located, while clear majorities say that casinos specifically help local economies (57%) and create jobs (71%).
• Two-in-three Americans (67%) think the gaming industry provides high-quality entertainment and 63 percent believe casino entertainment options are innovative.

These results come at a time of unprecedented growth for the gaming industry. With the spread of legal, regulated sports betting, 43 states plus the District of Columbia will soon have some form of casino gaming or sports betting. Gaming revenue for the U.S. casino industry reached an all-time high of $75.4 billion last year according to AGA’s annual State of the States report and National Indian Gaming Commission data. Today’s findings are consistent with previous AGA research showing nearly nine out of 10 Americans view gaming as a mainstream form of entertainment.

Methodology
The Mellman Group conducted this survey of Americans’ attitudes on behalf of the American Gaming Association between Sept. 13-19, 2019 among a national sample of 1,000 registered voters. The interviews were conducted both online and via phone. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent.

Washington, D.C. – The majority of gaming executives report a positive view of current business conditions, while economic uncertainty is tempering future industry growth expectations, according to the American Gaming Association’s (AGA) Gaming Industry Outlook presented in partnership with Fitch Ratings.

Overall, nearly every gaming executive surveyed characterizes the current business situation as good (62%) or satisfactory (35%). However, panel participants report a more cautious outlook moving forward, with only 20 percent expecting future conditions to be better than today and two-thirds (64%) expecting future conditions to be the same.

“Gaming’s record momentum has continued into 2023 and that is clearly reflected by the attitudes of gaming executives around the country,” said AGA President and CEO Bill Miller. “While projections of slowing growth across the American economy are muting expectations for gaming in the medium term, our industry is well-positioned to weather any potential headwinds.”

Current Conditions Index
The Current Conditions Index of 106.0 shows strong growth in casino gaming-related economic activity in Q1 2023 relative to Q4 2022, the commercial gaming industry’s highest-grossing quarter to date. Over the last three quarters, industry activity has been expanding at an annualized pace of approximately 8.4 percent, reflecting real underlying growth, controlled for the effects of inflation. Comparatively, the national U.S. economy grew 2.9 percent over the last two quarters of 2022, the most recently available quarterly data.

Future Conditions Index
The Future Conditions Index decelerated to 97.1 in Q1 2023, indicating annualized industry economic activity is expected to decrease moderately over the next six months. This is partially driven by Gaming Executive Panel results—which remain positive but have softened relative to six months ago—as well as the current Oxford Economics forecast which predicts the U.S. economy will experience mild recession in the second half of 2023.

Gaming Executive Panel
Results from the Gaming Executive Panel show more cautious attitudes for growth over the next six months, with a greater share of executives expecting the pace of new employee hiring, revenue growth and customer activity to decrease over the next three to six months than to increase. Competition for current employees also continues to be a challenge, with talent retention cited as another area of concern by the panel.

Operators and suppliers both express outsized optimism across certain segments of their businesses:

• More operators expect capital investment (21% net positive) and gaming units in operation (14% net positive) to increase over the next three to six months than decrease.
• Gaming equipment manufacturers are particularly positive, with almost all supplier executives expecting sales of gaming units for replacement use to increase (88% net positive) and most expecting units for new or expansion use to increase (63% net positive). No gaming manufacturer expected the pace of sales to decrease.

Concerns around interest rates and inflation (cited by 69% of respondents) and economic uncertainty (38%) remain top concerns for industry executives. Meanwhile, supply chain delays have fallen out of the top five concerns of executives, replaced with geopolitical risk (31%). Concerns around availability of credit have also eased in the past six months, with the share of executives reporting access to credit as tight (20%) equally balanced by the share that view it as easy (20%).

About the Outlook
The AGA Gaming Industry Outlook is presented in partnership with Fitch Ratings and prepared biannually by Oxford Economics. It provides a timely measure of recent industry growth and future expectations. The Q1 2023 survey was conducted between March 29 – April 10, 2023. A total of 26 executives responded, including executives at the major international and domestic gaming companies, tribal gaming operators, single-unit casino operators, major gaming equipment suppliers, and major iGaming and/or sports betting operators.

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About the AGA
As the national trade group representing the U.S. casino industry, the American Gaming Association (AGA) fosters a policy and business environment where legal, regulated gaming thrives. The AGA’s diverse membership of commercial and tribal casino operators, sports betting and iGaming companies, gaming suppliers, and more lead the $261 billion industry and support 1.8 million jobs across the country.

About Fitch Ratings
Fitch Ratings is acting as a sponsorship partner in connection with the AGA Gaming Industry Outlook. Views expressed herein do not represent analytical views of Fitch Ratings.

Dedicated to providing value beyond the rating, Fitch Ratings is a leading provider of credit ratings, commentary and research. Fitch Group is a global leader in financial information services and is comprised of: Fitch Ratings, Fitch Solutions, Fitch Learning and Sustainable Fitch. With dual headquarters in London and New York, Fitch Group is owned by Hearst. For additional information, please visit fitchratings.com.

Real economic activity in the gaming industry fell in Q1 at the fastest rate since the pandemic as executives’ views on the current business climate softened, according to the American Gaming Association’s Gaming Industry Outlook.  

Like others, AGA member companies face a landscape where consumers’ discretionary activities will be tested by tariffs on imported goods and stock market setbacks. 

However, even as near-term executive views have darkened, their longer-term outlook is more positive, reflecting hope that the current uncertainty will be resolved sooner than later. 

The Gaming Industry Outlook provides a snapshot of the industry’s current and future economic health based on executive sentiment, gaming activity and economic indicators. Key highlights include the following: 

• The Gaming Conditions Index (GCI or the Index) shows real economic activity in the industry contracting in Q1 relative to the prior year. The Index tracks real economic activity in the sector, measured by gaming revenue, employment, employee wages and salaries, gaming executive sentiment, and requests for proposal (RFP) activity for events at casino hotels.   
• Gaming executive sentiment improved slightly but remained marginally negative. Slightly more respondents gave negative responses (e.g., “expect decrease”) than positive ones (e.g., “expect increase”) across a range of questions pertaining to factors such as business situation, revenue growth and customer activity.
  
• The economic forecast is mixed but does not yet anticipate a recession. Tariffs are expected to increase the consumer price index to 3.6% this year from 3.0% last year. Combined with recent stock market declines, household sentiment is pulling back, likely presenting a headwind to discretionary spending. 

Gaming Conditions Index

The GCI indicates real economic activity in the industry, as measured by gaming revenue, employment, employee wages and salaries, executive sentiment and casino hotel RFP activity declined 0.9% in Q1 2025 relative to a year earlier, the largest contraction since the pandemic. The Index decline was primarily driven by weaker real wages, marginally negative sentiment, and real below average revenue growth. 

Because gaming revenues and employee wages are adjusted for inflation, the GCI was tempered by still-elevated inflation through Q1 2025.  

Executive Sentiment

Gaming executive sentiment was negative at -5.6% in Q1 2025, as more respondents continued to give negative responses than positive across a range of questions pertaining to factors such as their business situation, revenue growth and customer activity. For context, when the aggregate sentiment measure is equal to zero, it means that there was an equal number of positive responses and negative responses.  

The recent reading is an improvement relative to Q3 2024, as expectations around capital investment, revenue growth, and customer activity have improved. However, the score is worse than the sentiment one year ago, with the decline driven largely by negative views around the current business situation. 

Note: Gaming executive sentiment is measured through a survey every other quarter, as shown by the red columns. The blue columns show smoothed estimates for non-survey quarters. Responses to the current survey were received both before and after President Trump’s April 2 tariff announcement.  

Economic Outlook

The US economy is digesting multiple shocks, including tariffs, uncertainty, supply chain stress and tighter financial market conditions. Oxford Economics’ April baseline outlook assumes average tariff rates will remain at or near current levels, with an extension of the 90-day pause on certain April 2 tariff increases, resulting in a shock to the US economy, but not outright recession. In this outlook, real disposable income expands 2.4% year over year by Q1 2026, indicating household incomes outpacing stronger inflation, but household wealth declines 7.0% and real spending on services slows to just 1.4%.  

Casino Hotel Event Activity

Casino hotels continue to receive RFPs for events, such as business meetings and social events, at a pace that’s above pre-pandemic levels. Relative to a year ago, the number of RFPs received has increased by 0.3%, essentially maintaining the same level year-over-year. 

Gaming Executive Panel Highlights

Despite a slight improvement in aggregate sentiment, certain conditions are limiting executive optimism. More than half of gaming executives cited economic uncertainty, inflation/interest rate concerns and geo-political risk as factors limiting their operations in the U.S. This is notably higher than Q3, when only 28% of gaming executives cited the same factors.  

Rising uncertainty has driven a less positive near-term business outlook: for the first time since the survey began in 2021, more respondents indicated a negative present business situation than a positive one (36% negative, 46% neutral, 18% positive). 

 Despite current pessimism, executives’ longer-term outlook improved: 14% of executives responded with a positive future business outlook, 82% responded with a neutral outlook, and 4% responded with a negative outlook. This reflects expectations that revenue will grow more in the next six to 12 months than it did in the previous six to 12 months (46% positive, 28% neutral, 25% negative). 

 Expectations around capital investment were markedly higher: 41% of executives expect the pace of capital investment to increase, compared to 19% of gaming executives who expect a decrease. Gaming executives continued to identify hotel and food and beverage facilities as the most likely areas for investment, although the shares were lower than in 2024 Q3. (Hotel 56% in 2024 Q3, 40% in 2025 Q1; food and beverage 56% in 2024 Q3, 27% in 2025 Q1.) 

Executive sentiment around future customer activity improved to its highest level since 2022 Q1, with 29% of executives expecting an increase. Insufficient customer demand, which was chosen as a factor limiting operations by 22% of executives in 2024 Q3, was only chosen by 11% of executives in 2025 Q1. 

Although executives are bullish on capital investments, expectations around the pace of hiring and wage growth remain muted. Employee wages and benefits were selected along with tax or regulatory policy changes and data protection as the top areas placing additional pressure on profit margin over the next six to 12 months. 

On the supplier side, gaming equipment manufacturers indicated positive expectations for sales of gaming units for new or expansion use, sales of gaming units for replacement use, and pace of capital investment for the first time since 2023 Q3.  

Short-answer comments by executives on aspects of operations requiring greater than normal levels of management attention included the following examples: 

Financial
“Maintaining margins in an uncertain economic environment;” “economic uncertainty impacting capital spending;” “maintaining healthy top line revenue.”

Strategy
“Managing narrative around sector integrity;” “cyber security improvements;” “pivoting due to lack of expansion of mobile sports betting and iGaming;” “impact of grey markets;” “marketing and promotion.”

Political 
“Impact of tariffs on supply chain;” “state and federal regulations;” “monitoring and responding to changes from the administration.” 

Background & Methodology 

The Gaming Industry Outlook is prepared on the behalf of the American Gaming Association by Oxford Economics. It provides a timely measure of recent growth and future expectations. This is the eighth release of the index.  

Gaming Conditions Index:  

• The Gaming Conditions Index measures activity in the U.S. casino gaming industry during the most recent quarter relative to a year ago. It is based on five components: gaming revenue, employment, wages and salaries, sentiment, and casino hotel RFP activity. Each component is adjusted to control for seasonal patterns, and monetary measures are adjusted for inflation. Data is estimated through the most recent quarter for each index component based on available monthly data as of the point of index calculation.  

 Gaming Executive Panel 

• The Gaming Executive Panel consists of senior-level AGA member executives that represent the breadth of the casino gaming sector. Respondents were segmented across three primary categories: casinos operators and owners, gaming equipment suppliers and iGaming and/or sportsbook operators.  

• The Q1 2025 survey was conducted between March 25 and April 8, 2025. A total of 28 executives responded, including executives at the major international and domestic gaming companies, tribal gaming operators, single unit casino operators, major gaming equipment suppliers and major iGaming and/or sports betting operators.  

• In the Q1 2025 survey, several minor changes were implemented, though overall, the measure of aggregate sentiment is still comparable as an indicator across survey periods. The wording for questions about expected change was shifted from referring to the pace of growth, to comparisons relative to the prior year, and the future time horizon was shifted to focus on a nine to 12-month outlook, as opposed to three to six-month outlook used in the prior surveys. Several questions were removed.  

• Aggregate Sentiment is calculated on gaming executive responses to multiple questions about current and future industry expectations.  

This group provides a forum for discussing state initiatives to help drive an efficient regulatory reform process and speak with one voice to shape sound gaming policy. Given the Supreme Court ruling on sports betting, the working group will be tasked in the short term with exchanging information about the legislation and regulations that are pending in the states. The group will help coalesce the industry and act as a resource to navigate discussions. This will be a permanent working group that will continue to meet as needed to focus on state-level issues beyond sports betting.

Washington, D.C. – Gaming CEOs remain positive about the industry’s current business situation and many express confidence about future conditions despite persistent concerns about today’s economic environment, according to the American Gaming Association’s (AGA) Gaming Industry Outlook presented in partnership with Fitch Ratings.

Almost all executives surveyed indicated that the present business situation is good (68%) or satisfactory (28%), and most (92%) expect these conditions to continue or improve over the next three to six months. More than one third (38%) indicated they expect future conditions to be better, compared to only eight percent that thought conditions would worsen.

“Our industry remains cautiously optimistic—and has weathered this volatile economy— because of resilient consumer demand,” said AGA President and CEO Bill Miller. “Looking ahead, future consumer confidence and spending remain an outstanding question for our continued growth.”

Despite strong annual revenue numbers to date, macroeconomic factors are tempering the future outlook for the gaming industry. While concerns have eased from earlier this year, two-thirds of gaming CEOs named supply chain issues as a factor limiting operations (65%), followed by inflation and interest rate concerns (62%). Half of executives also identified the uncertainty of the economic environment (50%) and shortage of labor (50%) as impediments to business growth.

The Gaming Industry Outlook includes two separate indices: the Current Conditions Index and the Future Conditions Index.

Current Conditions Index
The Current Conditions Index of 99.5 shows real gaming-related economic activity is relatively stable compared to the second quarter of 2022, when the industry set a new quarterly revenue record. Looking backward, the Index indicates that gaming-related economic activity has grown at an annualized pace of approximately 4.9 percent over the last three quarters, reflecting real underlying growth, controlled for the effects of inflation.

Future Conditions Index
The Future Conditions Index currently stands at 95.3, indicating that real gaming-related economic activity is expected to decrease moderately over the next six months at a 4.7 percent annualized rate. While the growth expectations of the Gaming Executive Panel remain positive, the Future Conditions Index is dampened by the current Oxford Economic outlook, which anticipates a mild recession in the first half of 2023.

Gaming Executive Panel
Three in four CEOs surveyed (76%) expect the pace of wage and benefit growth to continue to increase over the next three to six months, although there was a slowdown in expectations around the pace of hiring compared to earlier this year.

For gaming operators, future customer activity is a major question mark with expectations evenly split between expansion and contraction. Among gaming suppliers, half expect the sales of both new and replacement units to increase over the next two quarters, while none expected a decrease in sales.

The strong growth over the past two years has positioned the industry well despite future uncertainty. While respondents noted a significant deterioration in the credit environment, nearly half expected balance sheet health to improve over the next six months.

About the Outlook
The AGA Gaming Industry Outlook is presented in partnership with Fitch Ratings and prepared biannually by Oxford Economics. It provides a timely measure of recent industry growth and future expectations. The Q3 2022 survey was conducted between August 30 – September 6, 2022. A total of 26 executives responded, including executives at the major international and domestic gaming companies, tribal gaming operators, single-unit casino operators, major gaming equipment suppliers and major iGaming and/or sports betting operators.

Fitch Ratings is acting as a sponsorship partner in connection with the AGA Gaming Industry Outlook. Views expressed herein do not represent analytical views of Fitch Ratings.

About the American Gaming Association
As the national trade group representing the U.S. casino industry, the American Gaming Association (AGA) fosters a policy and business environment where legal, regulated gaming thrives. The AGA’s diverse membership of commercial and tribal casino operators, sports betting and iGaming companies, gaming suppliers, and more lead the $261 billion industry and support 1.8 million jobs across the country.

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The explosion of legalized sports betting has brought powerful new players, including sports teams, stadiums, and media companies, into the business of gaming with major implications for everyone. In this session, you’ll learn how the landscape has changed for tribal government gaming, sports teams and media companies in this new post-PSAPA world.