Michigan online casino players often include crossover gamblers from online sportsbooks – especially during the NFL season. Industry watchers expect that to create a revenue bump. Instead, Michiganders supplied a 1.67% drop in iGaming revenue last month, from $131 million in August to $129 million in September.
Despite that dip, it’s difficult to panic about Michigan online casino gross gaming revenue (GGR).
The numbers supplied yesterday by the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) show September’s GGR is $128,734,445 from 14 operators. (TwinSpires Sportsbook and Casino shut down its Michigan operations on Sept. 6. Island Resort and Casino replaced the sports betting site immediately with SI Sportsbook.)
Yet some market watchers may be panicking because gambling operators so consistently exceed market expectations that the 25.7% year-over-year revenue increase reported in yesterday’s figures actually have them checking in.
It’s easy to imagine these comments from them: “Are you OK? In February, your YoY was 54% up. This is your smallest improvement ever.”
In the meantime, Michigan iGaming GGR during the first nine months of the year totaled $1.1 billion. That’s $74,606,853 behind New Jersey’s US online casino GGR-leading $1.2 billion.
That year-to-date figure for 2022 is already $29 million ahead of Michigan iGaming GGR for all of 2021.
A Closer Look at Michigan Online Casino GGR
Online sports betting gets national attention. That interest spiked once the 2022 NFL season began on Sept. 8.
Michiganders, too, got excited. MGCB reported yesterday:
Gross sports betting receipts were $47.8 million compared with $24 million in August for a 99.3% increase.
However, Michigan iGaming is responsible for 73% of September’s GGR.
Putting the online casino in perspective, it’s important to remember that 30 days hath September. That means the daily GGR of $4,291,148 exceeds August’s $4,223,361 by 1.6%, or $67,787 a day.
So $128,734,445 in Michigan online casino GGR isn’t a defeat. It’s $26,354,223 more than September 2021’s $102,380,222. That’s a 25.7% year-over-year revenue increase.
Plus, Michigan’s year-to-date iGaming revenue of $1,143,297,338 is already $29,297,954 more than all of 2021’s. Last year, Michigan online casinos generated $1,113,999,384 in GGR.
As MichiganSharp.com predicted in August, Michigan online casino GGR hit $1 billion for the year during August.
At this point, the second-newest full-service online gambling state that launched on Jan. 22, 2021, may even want to start showing when individual operators may reach $1 billion in GGR.
So far BetMGM, the state’s iGaming market leader at 36% during September 2022, has a Michigan online casino lifetime GGR of $845,797,117.
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