America's regulated online casino gaming scene continues its impressive trajectory, with April 2025 delivering a robust performance across the seven states
America’s regulated online casino gaming scene continues its impressive trajectory, with April 2025 delivering a robust performance across the seven states where it’s live. Operators collectively raked in a substantial $868.6 million for the month, showcasing a significant 32.5% leap compared to April of last year-that’s an additional $213 million flowing into state coffers and operator pockets.
This strong April showing indicates that the industry isn’t just riding a temporary wave. It comfortably followed a record-setting March that saw over $900 million in operator revenue, suggesting sustained momentum. Notably, Connecticut continued its hot streak, setting yet another new monthly revenue record for the second consecutive month.
While monthly drop figures (wagering handle) aren’t uniformly published across all states, the known handle from Pennsylvania and Connecticut alone totaled a hefty $10.2 billion. Pennsylvania accounted for over $7.5 billion of that, with Connecticut impressively clearing $1.6 billion for the third time in four months.
From a fiscal perspective, online casino gaming remains a significant contributor. Taxable operator revenue for April hit $787.9 million, translating to $169.3 million for state coffers-a healthy $43.9 million increase from April 2024, and that doesn’t even include local taxes or tribal disbursements.
The “Nutmeg State” continues to serve as an intriguing case study in online casino dynamics, largely operating as a duopoly between DraftKings and FanDuel. DraftKings, in particular, has demonstrated an aggressive play in the last two months, exemplified by a near-$11 million promotional spend in April. This marked its second consecutive eight-figure promotional outlay and an all-time high, representing almost 1.4% of its overall $816.4 million drop.
This significant investment, coupled with some virtual table and slot success (evidenced by an all-time best hold of 3.9%), propelled DraftKings to a record gross revenue haul of $31.6 million. This wasn’t just a 38.3% jump from April 2024; it surpassed its own fleeting March record by almost $3.2 million.
FanDuel Casino also notched a new gross winnings record, reaching $29.2 million. While this was a more modest gain of just $30,000 from March, it still represented an impressive 57.6% year-over-year surge. Despite its promotional spend topping $6 million for the fifth consecutive month, it consistently remained under 1% of its overall drop.
Collectively, Connecticut’s overall winnings in April amounted to $61 million (up 47%), on a $1.6 billion drop (up 23.1%). The state’s year-to-date gross revenue reached $225.1 million, a 31.7% increase from the first four months of 2024, with $191.4 million in adjusted gross revenue contributing to an $8.3 million increase in tax receipts for 2025.
Even in markets with a single operator tied to the state lottery, online casino gaming showed stellar year-over-year growth in April.
Delaware’s market, now led by BetRivers (which took over in January 2024), followed its record $10.3 million haul in March with over $9.9 million in gross revenue for April. This represents a staggering 95.7% increase from 12 months prior, underscoring the impact of the operator change. The $1.01 billion wagered in Delaware during the first four months of 2025 has already surpassed half of the total $1.89 billion drop for all of 2024, indicating a significantly accelerated pace of activity.
Rhode Island, with Bally’s as its sole operator, reported $4.7 million in winnings, more than double the $2.1 million from its first full month of operations in April 2024. The combined March and April revenue for Rhode Island this year reached $9.9 million, nearly triple the $3.3 million accrued in the same span last year. The $16.8 million claimed in 2025 so far is almost 65% of the $26.3 million won for all of 2024, highlighting the rapid scaling of this nascent market.
The “Big 3” iGaming states - Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New Jersey - continued their impressive run in April. Just last April (2024), only Pennsylvania had managed to clear the $200 million benchmark in operator gross winnings. Fast forward 12 months, and all three of these major markets now comfortably surpassed that benchmark in both gross and adjusted operator winnings for April 2025.
Pennsylvania once again claimed top gross honors with a whopping $282.8 million, representing a solid 34.8% increase from last year. However, Michigan ($248.1 million) and New Jersey ($235.2 million) were hardly trailing, showcasing their significant contributions to the national total. All three of these powerhouse states are projected to surpass $1 billion in taxable revenue when their May figures are released, and all three are currently enjoying year-over-year growth of 21% or better in that category. This consistently strong performance across diverse market structures underscores the robust and expanding nature of the regulated US online casino sector.
