Casinos, sports betting sites and online gambling companies are raking in record revenue, according to new data this week from the American Gaming Association, the trade group for the legal gambling industry.

Sports betting revenue is rising fastest, up 70% since last year — but it’s still old-fashioned, brick-and-mortar casinos that bring in the most cash

The first full year of the pandemic was pretty rough for casinos, said Casey Clark at the American Gaming Association. But then in 2021, they set a revenue record.

“Which was bested in 2022, with another record year,” Clark said. “And now Q1 of 23, shows another quarterly record.”

One factor that might be drawing people into casinos: all of the advertising for online sports betting that seems to be everywhere these days. 

“It may have increased the amount of gambling that regular or heavy gamblers are doing,” said Rachel Volberg, a professor at UMass Amherst, who studies the casino industry. 

This uptick is happening even as Americans face economic uncertainty. But Lia Nower, the director of the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University, said that’s not surprising.

“That’s the time when revenue actually does go up because people mistakenly feel that gambling can be an income-generating activity,” Nower said.

The risk, she said, is that more people could develop gambling problems.