Final CFG USA 2024 Online Gambling Report Confirms: Crime Wins After Years of Legalization

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Campaign for Fairer Gambling (CFG) has today released 2024 CFG USA State Supplement #2: All States, the final report in its landmark CFG USA 2024 Series, warning that the rapid expansion of legal online gambling is fueling more gambling and higher consumer losses – all without displacing crime from the total marketplace.

The analysis, produced by technical marketplace intelligence platform Yield Sec, offers the most comprehensive national and state-by-state breakdown ever produced across the US online sports betting, casino and poker marketplaces. It shows that states with more legal operators record the highest Gross Gambling Revenue (GGR) per capita as a percentage of income – but, illegal operators continue to dominate, with 74% of total GGR across US online gambling being stolen by crime during 2024.

In 2024, the total US online gambling marketplace was worth $90.1 billion, of which $67.1 billion (74%) was illegal. The illegal sector grew by 64% year-on-year, outpacing the legal sector's 36% growth.

There are three states with legalized online sports betting where the market is below the average of 0.31% GGR per capita as a percentage of income for states with no legalization, being Oregon, Maine and Arkansas. These states have operator numbers of Oregon 1, Maine 2 and Arkansas 3, for an average of 2, below the national average of 9.  

There are three states with both legalized online sports betting and casino gaming where the market is below the average of 0.77% of GGR per capita as a percentage of income for states with legalization of online sports betting only, being Delaware, Rhode Island and Connecticut. These states have operator numbers of Delaware 4, Rhode Island 2 and Connecticut 3 for an average of 3, below the national average of 14.

There is a pronounced correlation between having a small number of legal operators and lower GGR per capita as a percentage of income. 

The proponents of legalization assert that having more legal operators is better for competition and implies that this will help reduce the size of the illegal sector. The evidence, contained in CFG reporting from years of monitoring and the most comprehensive study ever conducted upon the US online gambling marketplace at both the national and state levels, contradicts this assertion.

Derek Webb, Founder and Funder of CFG, said:
"The onus is on the proponents of legalization to provide an explanation as to how they managed to get it so wrong – at the least, they should apologize to the legislators they influenced based on their misleading representations. There should now be a moratorium on state expansion until effective action reduces illegal revenues and enables effective control of online gambling marketplaces."

Ismail Vali, founder and CEO of Yield Sec, added:
"Decades of illegal online gambling in the USA were meant to end with legalization and regulation. The hope was simple: legal, licensed options in each state would "channelize" the marketplace and eliminate illegal gambling. This has not happened.
Seven years after state legalization began in 2018, the US online gambling marketplace remains a fortress of crime, and the zero-sum game hope that legalization and regulation would, on their own, remove crime, has failed.
Illegal gambling isn't one problem – it's many. You can only control it through process – MPEO: Monitor, Police, Enforce, Optimize. Crime has now stolen hundreds of billions of dollars from American commerce and communities over more than three decades – it's time to make this end."

For further information and to access the CFG USA 2024 Reports please contact:
[email protected] 

DOWNLOAD THE FULL SERIES OF CFG USA 2024 ONLINE GAMBLING REPORTS:
CFG USA National 2024: Press Page
CFG USA National 2024: Report
CFG USA Illegal Streaming of Sports Events and Illegal Gambling 2024
2024 CFG USA State Supplement #1 State Groups
2024 CFG USA State Supplement #2: All States

Yield Sec Head of Press:
Yasmine Scott
[email protected]

About The Campaign for Fairer Gambling (CFG): The Campaign for Fairer Gambling (CFG) exists to advance a politically bipartisan and scientifically evidenced agenda of gambling reform. CFG will be active across America because the nationwide debate over gambling needs more balance and trustworthy data. For more information, visit https://www.fairergambling.com/

About Yield Sec: Yield Sec, short for yield security, is a technical intelligence platform monitoring all audience activity across streaming, gambling, crypto and consumer goods to see the total online marketplace - both legal and illegal. Yield Sec delivers analysis, actions and recommendations to ensure online stakeholders make the money they should - and are not stolen from by crime.
https://www.yieldsec.com/

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SOURCE The Campaign for Fairer Gambling (CFG)