Casinos & Gaming
Casino operators and gaming companies providing gambling and entertainment experiences in commercial and tribal venues.
- 5
- Verticals
Overview
Casinos & Gaming covers commercial and tribal casinos, casino hotels, and other gambling operations, led by scaled operators (Caesars, MGM, Penn, Boyd) alongside a large tribal-gaming sector. The legalization and explosive growth of online sports betting and iGaming has been the defining recent trend, reshaping the industry's growth and competitive dynamics.
Land-based gaming is capital-intensive and consolidated, while digital gaming is a fast-growing, marketing-heavy arena dominated by DraftKings, FanDuel, and operator-affiliated apps. Demand is discretionary but resilient, and consolidation spans both physical and digital.
Market snapshot
- Market size
- ~$113B
- Growth
- ~4.3%CAGR (2017–22, nominal)
- Companies
- ~2,514 firms
67.1% of firms have fewer than 20 employees: 1,687 micro-businesses, below most mandates.
- 20–99
- 32639%
- 100–499
- 26332%
- 500+
- 23829%
Revenue per firm near $45M is the tell: this is a scale business, a handful of operators (Caesars, MGM, Penn, Boyd) plus a large tribal sector running integrated resorts where gaming, hotel, and food-and-beverage revenue combine. The defining shift is digital. Legalized sports betting and iGaming (DraftKings, FanDuel) bolted a fast-growing, marketing-heavy layer onto land-based play. Casino hotels are counted here rather than under lodging, because the gaming floor, not the room, is the business.
NAICS 713210, 713290, 721120. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census.
Business model & economics
Revenue model
Gaming win plus hotel, F&B, and entertainment; digital wagering
Key economics
- Revenue per firm
- $44,858,324
- Revenue per employee
- $237,045
- Employees per firm
- 190.4
- Recurring revenue
- Low
- EBITDA margin
- Strong on gaming; digital marketing-cost heavy
- Capex intensity
- High
play-driven, but loyalty programs build frequency
Characteristics
- Scale-driven: payroll is only 20% of revenue, so the cost base is assets, not headcount
- Deep strategic-buyer pool: 238 firms exceed 500 employees, so a scaled asset has trade buyers
- Online sports betting and iGaming are the defining growth trend.
- Land-based gaming is capital-intensive and consolidated.
- Loyalty programs and integrated resorts drive frequency.
NAICS 713210, 713290, 721120. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census.
M&A deal context
Who’s acquiring
- Scaled casino operators
- Digital gaming & sports-betting platforms
- Gaming REITs and asset investors
What’s driving deals
- Online sports betting and iGaming expansion.
- Consolidation across land-based gaming.
- Separation of gaming operations from real estate via REITs.
Verticals in this segment
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