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; 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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