This Week in Gambling Interview: American Gaming Association's Chris Cylke

In this episode of TWiG Interview Series, J. Todd speaks with American Gaming Association's Senior Vice President of Government Relations Chris Cylke about how black market gambling is still robbing state governments of billions of dollars annually.

Even with expansion of online gambling across the country, black market gambling has not slowed down according to a new report from the American Gaming Association. Right now, folks in the United States are placing half a trillion dollars a year with offshore online sites, unregulated gaming machines, and even the neighborhood bookie.

That report showed that black market gambling robs state governments of $13.3 billion in tax revenue annually, nearly $2.5 billion more than legal operators generated in 2021 ($11.7 billion). It also costs the legal gaming industry $44.2 billion in annual revenue, or nearly half of the $92 billion in combined commercial and tribal revenue in 2021.

"Black Market gambling is a scourge on our society, taking advantage of vulnerable consumers, skirting regulatory obligations and robbing communities of critical tax revenue for infrastructure, education and more,” said American Gaming Association President and CEO Bill Miller. “We have always known that the illegal and unregulated market is expansive, but this report illuminates just how pervasive it is.”

American betting accounts for an estimated $337.9 billion with illegal gambling websites, with a loss of $3.9 billion in state tax revenue. With $13.5 billion in estimated revenue, the illegal iGaming market in the U.S. is nearly three times the size of the legal U.S. iGaming market, estimated to be $5 billion in 2022. With iGaming only legal in six states, nearly half of all Americans that have played online slots or table games in the past year have played with black market gambling operators.