Illegal US Online Gambling Revenue Hits $97.4 Billion

Illegal online gambling generated an estimated $97.4 billion in the US in 2025, a 45.2% jump in a single year and nearly twice the growth recorded by the regulated market.

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The figures come from Gaming Compliance International in a report commissioned by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling. Regulated online gambling revenue rose 23% to $28.3 billion over the same period.

The gap is becoming harder to ignore. GCI estimates that unlicensed websites and apps accounted for 77% of total US online gambling gross gaming revenue last year, up from 74% in 2024.

Across both legal and illegal markets, online gambling losses climbed from $90.1 billion to $125.6 billion. That was a 39.4% increase.

The report challenges the idea that expanding legal betting automatically pushes consumers away from illegal operators. Its findings suggest the two markets have grown alongside each other, with unlicensed businesses continuing to capture most of the activity.

Legal markets, illegal activity

The picture changes sharply from state to state.

GCI measured gambling exposure using a loss ratio, comparing online gambling revenue per person with income per person. States offering both online sports betting and online casino gaming recorded an average ratio of 1.38% in 2025. That fell to 0.99% in states where only sports betting was regulated and 0.44% where neither product was legal.

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Louisiana had the highest loss ratio in the study and also one of the largest shares of unregulated activity, with most of that gambling attributed to illegal operators.

West Virginia, where both sports betting and online casino gaming are legal, recorded a 1.57% ratio. Unregulated activity alone accounted for 0.87 percentage points.

California presented the opposite picture. Neither online sports betting nor online casino gaming is legal there, yet the state recorded a 0.43% loss ratio, all of it linked to unregulated gambling.

The report’s findings point to a market that is expanding faster than regulation. Legal operators are growing, but illegal platforms are growing faster and still account for the overwhelming share of online gambling revenue.

Derek Webb, who funds the Campaign for Fairer Gambling, argues that enforcement against illegal operators should take precedence over further changes to legal-market taxation or regulation.

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Source: focusgn.com