The global gambling business is big. Very big. Around $575 billion a year according to some market reports – a figure that is probably underestimated, as you will see later. The online gambling business alone was estimated at being worth some $78 billion a year in 2024. Growth is also continuing in both sectors, with double digits forecast over the next half decade. But how big is that, compared to other business sectors?
These numbers bring up other questions. For example, how much does gambling contribute back to the global economy from those revenues? Who are the richest gambling magnates, and how rich are they compared to other fields globally? How many jobs does it support, and how many people are actually big winners? This article will attempt to put the global gambling business in perspective, by answering some of those questions and others.
Global Gambling Revenues in Perspective
That headline figure of around $475 billion is split across all sorts of gambling ventures, including everything from popular online casinos like jackpotcity to sprawling mega casinos in Macau or tiny venues with a few slot machines.
It also just pure revenue and does not include the economic impact of things like hospitality, back end tech, R&D, marketing and even player pay outs.
For example, Las Vegas is a town built on gambling and casinos but today around $80 billion is spent by tourists on general entertainment and hospitality annually – compared to $20 billion in gambling at casinos. And around 60% of that revenue goes to companies that also operate gambling.
So, the true figure of the economic worth of the global gambling business could be significantly higher than just the operators’ revenues. Keep that in mind.
Going with the low end $475 billion figure, how does that compare globally? Well, it makes gambling substantially bigger than:
- the global videogames market (estimated $224 billion annually),
- the worldwide music business ($29.6 billion)
- the movie business ($110 billion for box office receipts)
Gambling is comparable with the entire global sports market, which is worth around $600 billion a year. It is certifiably one of the biggest entertainment business sectors in the world.
However, the gambling business brings in far smaller revenues than video streaming ($670 billion) and is dwarfed by sectors like the global tech business and retail markets which broadly bring in many trillions per year.
Employment, Charities and Taxes are Also Significant
Gambling sector employment estimates vary but registered gambling operators directly employ around 1.15 million people worldwide. That does not include related and interconnected businesses that rely on gambling, such as hospitality and many other things in Las Vegas or Macau, and global tech firms that provide back end services to gambling operators.
The true number of people who owe their employment to gambling business spending is probably much higher. Gambling businesses, at least regulated and licensed ones, often pay big taxes too. Some US sports betting operators are taxed at 50% to access massive markets like New York.
In the UK, £3.8 billion a year is raised in gambling taxes and in the US many states also report billions in tax revenues annually from online gambling alone.
There are also many charitable and state run lotteries which fall under gambling, such as the UK’s National Lottery and others, that are required to give back significant chunks of their revenue to charitable causes.
Side note: there are an estimated 10,000 professional gamblers in the US, probably more than a hundred thousand worldwide, who wouldn’t be counted here. Let alone the lucky people who have retired from big jackpot lottery or slot wins, which is almost certainly in the hundreds of thousands over the last 30 years.
Who is the House Exactly – How Rich are Gambling Magnates in Context
That last point illustrates a key thing in this section. The gambling business is very big, but it actually doesn’t generate as many “super-rich” as you might think.
For every gambling transaction, unlike say video streaming or selling luxury hand bags, there is a chance the operator may have to pay out a lot of money. Not a big chance. And they work out the odds so they (usually) can still make a profit at the end of it all. But no other entertainment business operates on such a risky model.
Gambling is also expensive to operate and maintain. Large casinos are almost always open 24/7, as are all online casinos, poker rooms and sportsbooks. Las Vegas’ electricity bills alone, for example, must be astronomical. They are also often privately held, meaning no booming stock values.
All this means big personal gambling fortunes do exist – but relatively few, compared to other business sectors, make it into the top echelons of global wealth.
The richest gambling magnates in the business today include:
- Denise Coates, owner of Bet365 with a £7 billion fortune
- Miriam Adelson of Las Vegas Sands (around $40 billion)
- Lui Che Woo of Galaxy Entertainment Macau (estimated $10 billion)
Compare that to people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Bernard Arnault and others among the world’s very richest. Those those people have hundreds of billions in net worth, with Miriam Adelson the only gambling businessperson close to the same order of magnitude.