Michigan Online Casinos Set Monthly and Annual Revenue Records in December 2023

Even as 2023 drew to a close, Michigan online casinos continued to surge, reaching new heights in the last month of the year. For the second consecutive month, the state reported a record-breaking monthly online gaming revenue.

Building on their previous best of $175.3 million in gross receipts for November, the state’s Michigan’s online casinos raked in an even higher revenue of $181.4 million in December. Not only did this milestone mark a significant month-over-month increase but was also instrumental in helping the state achieve a record annual revenue in 2023.

It would appear that lightning has struck twice as this is not the first time Michigan online casinos were ending a year with a record-breaking revenue month.

Back in December 2022, the state reported online gaming gross receipts of $152.8 million, which was the monthly revenue record coming into 2023.

History has now repeated itself with December’s 2023 online casino revenue of $181.4 million. While December 2023's record revenue represents a stunning 18.7% uptick over the previous year's peak, the month-over-month increase from November is a more measured 3.5%.

In addition, December’s revenue surge, coupled with a strong Q4, contributed in no little way to the state generating $1.92 billion in online casino revenue for 2023. This figure is a massive 21.6% improvement on the $1.58 billion yearly revenue reported in 2022 and also marks the new annual online gaming revenue in the state.

Michigan online casinos had no doubt witnessed a strong start to the year. January 2023 started off by smashing December 2022’s record gross receipts. The state’s online gaming revenue would peak in March, after which came the rather moderate months.

Q4 saw a return of the surge with two record breaking months in three. Q4 2023 proved to be a golden quarter for Michigan's online gaming industry, with gross receipts surging to $517 million. This marked a significant 17.7% increase over the $439.2 million generated in Q4 2022.

Last month saw BetMGM and FanDuel slug it out for the number one position. However, like it has for all 11 months of the past year, BetMGM Casino Michigan retained the top spot in December.

BetMGM ended the month with $47 million as against FanDuel’s $42.9 million. The $4.1 million difference between both operators is only their second closest margin till date, behind November’s margin of $2.8 million. This neck-and-neck finish suggests that the competition between both brands could even become fiercer in 2024.

However, while BetMGM might have come out tops, it doesn’t appear to be growing from the previous year. The casino’s December’s revenue was down 0.4% compared to 2022. On the other hand, FanDuel Casino Michigan saw a whopping 56.7% growth year-over-year in December 2023.

Elsewhere, DraftKings was the tribal casino leader with a revenue of $36.5 million in December. According to the MGCB, all Michigan online casinos paid $34.1 million in taxes to the state and $12.7 million to local authorities. This brought the collective iGaming tax revenue in 2023 to $486.6 million, up 17.7% from last year’s tax payments of $400 million.

Five Michigan online casinos set new monthly revenue records in December 2023, two of them being new market entrants. Four of these five had previously achieved a monthly best as recently as November 2023.

As expected, Hollywood Casino Michigan broke the Barstool revenue record in the state in only its first full month of operation. The casino recorded $6.4 million, a 23% increase on the previous $5.2 million PENN Entertainment record in the state.

Similarly, Caesars Palace, the standalone online casino gaming platform of Caesars Casino which launched earlier in 2023, reported a revenue of $9.6 million.

BetRivers Online Casino was Michigan’s fourth highest-grossing casino in Michigan for December, with a revenue of $11.4 million. Other record setters were Eagle Casino & Sports with $9.6 million gross receipts and Play Gun Lake generating $2.9 million.