Spin Cycle: AGA’s Partly Sunny Forecast Highlights Week In Gambling

Welcome to “Spin Cycle,” Casino Reports’ weekly Friday roundup of all things impactful, intriguing, impressive, or idiotic in the gambling industry. Pull up a chair, grab a stack of chips and a glass of your beverage of choice, and take a spin with us through this week’s news cycle …

Optimism, with asterisks

The American Gaming Association (AGA) released its annual Gaming Industry Outlook report Thursday, and its findings can best be summarized with this sentence in the third paragraph of the accompanying release: “The positive outlook comes amidst economic and competitive threats.” As an advocacy group supporting operators, the AGA seems to be putting out an optimistic spin where it can without ignoring the assortment of current challenges.

The report notes, “More than 60% of AGA member executives expect increased capital investment, boosted revenues, and improved balance sheet health over the next six to 12 months.” That’s measured optimism on display, as a majority expect growth — but it’s not an overwhelming majority, and it’s not necessarily substantial growth.

One standout measure in the report is the Gaming Conditions Index, which “tracks real economic activity in the sector, measured by gaming revenue, employment, employee wages and salaries, gaming executive sentiment, and future event activity at casino hotels.” It calculated 1.5% growth there in Q1 2026 vs. Q1 2025, which is certainly a positive result, but that’s trending downward from 2.4% growth the previous quarter and 3.1% growth the quarter before that.

Other numbers and observations of note: Gaming executive sentiment reached its highest figure since 2022’s third quarter, at 21.4% net positive; despite economic uncertainty, spending is expected to keep growing, driven by higher-income households; and casino hotels hosting conferences, meetings, and events is a trend that continues to arc upward, rising 2% year-over-year in Q1.

More news to know … 

• DraftKings reported its Q1 earnings as the week wound down, and the notable number on the U.S. online casino side is gross gaming revenue of $461 million, an increase of 9% year-over-year. (More detailed analysis from the earnings call is coming soon at InGame.)
• In other Q1 earnings news, Light & Wonder reported revenue of $790 million, with adjusted EBITDA that Truist analyst Barry Jonas said slightly missed his company’s projections (by 1%-3%). The culprit? A slowdown in social casino, driven by the pressure on sweepstakes operators, with LNW’s social revenue numbers falling 7% year-over-year.
• The Penn State Collegiate Recovery Community (CRC) launched a new “Know the Odds” campaign last week — not coincidentally timed alongside the opening of Happy Valley Casino, a brick-and-mortar located about three miles from the heart of the university’s campus. “Gambling triggers many sorts of different biochemical processes that mimic severe drug addiction,” CRC Director Jason Whitney, an assistant teaching professor in the Penn State College of Education, said during a webinar for the awareness campaign.
• War. What is it good for? A delay in the opening of Wynn Al Marjan Island, it appears. Bloomberg reported Tuesday that a planned spring 2027 opening is in jeopardy as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.
• There’s a new development in the ongoing battle between California cardrooms and tribes over table games. A California Superior Court judge ruled Monday that the cities that house the cardrooms can join the legal challenge to Attorney General Rob Bonta’s ban of third-party proposition player games. The judge also denied a motion by several tribes to intervene in the lawsuit.
• The budget proposal from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to increase online casino tax rates from 28% to as high as 36% is apparently a no-go. The state Senate passed its new budget, but without Whitmer’s gaming tax increases (which included a per-wager tax for sports betting as well).

House Rules: Insights from around our network

Kalshi COO Says Casino-Style Gambling Has No Business At Prediction Markets

How Long Before Resorts World NYC Has Local Competition?

Another Day, Another Set Of Powerball Winners

At ‘Challenger Brand’ Fanatics Casino, The House Rewards More Than Most

Eight High-Profile Online Sports Betting Platforms Registered In Alberta

Amid CEO Shakeup And Lowered Guidance, Casino Numbers Remain Strong For FanDuel

Washington DC Suddenly Sounds Serious About Legalizing Online Casino

Missouri Senate Committee Kills Video Lottery Bill

Three More States On Verge Of Banning Sweepstakes Casinos

Small stakes and hot takes

This week on the Casino Reports podcast Low Rollers, I welcomed my former co-host — now the host of The Business of Betting — Jeff Edelstein for a conversation covering Atlantic City’s worry over New York and/or North Jersey casinos, AI’s place in the gambling universe, the day Jeff invented best ball fantasy (really! … kinda?), the volatility of Huff N’ Puff slots, and more.

I also reacted to the news of FanDuel and CEO Amy Howe parting ways, plus gave one dad’s take on how to respond (and how proud and/or concerned to be) when your 16-year-old son asks, “How do I do responsible gambling?”

Full episode:

The Shuffle: Other news and views

The $11 Billion Casino-Style Economy Built On Players Who Can Never Cash Out [Bloomberg]

Wall Street Analyst Touts Churchill Downs After All-Time Kentucky Derby Week Record For Handle [CDC Gaming]

Last Resort In Primm, Former Gambling Mecca At The California-Nevada Border, Will Close [Los Angeles Times]

Atlantic City’s New Assemblywoman Backs ‘Compromise’ That Would Let Smoking Remain In Casinos [Press of Atlantic City]

Hard Rock Casino Rockford Adding Hotel And Convention Center [Chicago Tribune]

Casinos Had All The Luck In March As Nevada Posts 5th-Highest All-Time Win [8 News Now]

Accel Entertainment Thrives, Sets Quarterly Earnings Record In Q1 [CDC Gaming]

Golden Entertainment Casino Exec Says ‘Family-Owned’ Business Will Better Serve Customers [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

The Bonus Round

Completing the Spin Cycle with a few of our favorite social media posts of the week: