Analyst: Consumers Visit Casinos Less Than in 2019, Yet They Spend More

May 2025 was the strongest month for casino visits in the United States since December 2023, with a 2.3% increase. Despite changes in the market, overall traffic is still below pre-pandemic levels, despite an improvement in spending per guest.

According to Jefferies Equity Research, casino visits in the United States increased by 2.3 percent in May. However, it was down 9.2% from pre-pandemic levels. The good news for casinos was that spending per customer increased compared to six years earlier. The findings were released on June 11.

“This traffic level supports the strength seen in the regional data released this week,” noted analyst David Katz, who focused specifically on Missouri and Ohio.

Katz tempered his excitement by noting that May 2025 featured one additional weekend day than May 2024, “which is likely a contributor to the YoY growth recorded.” He also expected the tendency to reverse in June, which featured one fewer weekend day than in 2024.

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The analyst recently visited with Boyd Gaming officials. His conclusion was that gambling tendencies remained steady in the Midwest, South, and locally focused areas of the Las Vegas market.

Despite the discrepancy with 2019 visitor traffic, Katz saw cause to be optimistic, claiming that it was the best visiting month since December 2023, when volume had fallen 8.1 percent.

“We anticipate trends will continue to stabilize in 2025, as [comparisons] have started to ease vs. prior-year levels,” Katz said. “Additionally, the Street remains on guard for the impact of macro trends on earnings levels, including higher costs for insurance, utilities, and labour, which have challenged markets unevenly.”

Foot traffic at Ohio and Pennsylvania casinos increased by 5.4 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively, year on year. When compared to 2019, Pennsylvania remained constant, while Ohio increased 5.9 percent.

Atlantic City had a 1.1% increase in tourist traffic from May 2024; however, it still fell 9.3% short of 2019 figures. Illinois casinos underperformed 2019 by 4.3 percent but were 4.8 percent busier than in May 2024.

“Our take is that the monthly performance reflects the ongoing normalization of traffic trends post-COVID, where volatility remains, as well as from competition and renovations in specific locations and the extra Saturday in the month,” Katz told me.

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