Offshore online gambling in the United States grew nearly twice as fast as the regulated market in 2025, according to a new report commissioned by the Campaign for Fairer Gambling.
Gaming Compliance International estimated that unregulated online gambling generated $97.4 billion in gross gaming revenue, or American player losses, in 2025, up 45.2% from $67.1 billion in 2024.
By comparison, state-sanctioned online gambling revenue increased 23%, from $23 billion to $28.3 billion, the report said.
Overall, the report estimated that Americans lost $125.6 billion gambling online between those two markets in 2025, with unregulated operators accounting for 77% of the total market.
The estimates cover online sports betting, casino gambling, poker, crypto gambling, and lotteries.
The figures do not include the many billions of dollars lost to online gambling through prediction markets, daily fantasy sports, sweepstakes casinos, and so-called social casinos. There is some overlap between these products and those typically considered offshore casinos/sportsbooks.
Why it Matters
The findings challenge a common argument for gambling expansion. Proponents typically argue that legalization shifts consumers away from illegal offshore operators.
Instead, the report argues that legalization has expanded the overall pool of online gambling while illegal operators continue to grow.
“Proponents of expansion claim it is a means to mitigate illicit sector expansion,” the report stated. “In fact, in the absence of monitoring, policing and enforcement against the illicit sector, all expansion achieves is to help the total addressable marketplace for all forms of online gambling grow.”
The report also found higher gambling losses relative to income in states with more forms of legal online gambling. States with both regulated online casinos and sports betting had an average “loss ratio” of 1.38%, compared with 0.99% in sports-betting-only states and 0.44% in states with neither.
Louisiana had the highest overall loss ratio at 1.77%, followed by Michigan at 1.72%.
Unregulated-market figures are estimates derived from GCI’s monitoring and third-party data.
Federal Enforcement
States have long urged the federal government to crack down on offshore online gambling in a move similar to online poker’s “Black Friday” in 2011, but action has not come.
President Donald Trump has promoted at least one offshore operator from his social media platform.
Instead, states have had to implement a whack-a-mole-style strategy against the thousands of offshore platforms and brands that exist. States at the forefront of these efforts include Michigan, Tennessee, and New York, among others.
States typically send cease-and-desist letters to offshore operators, and sometimes operators comply.
