While total visits to U.S. casinos dipped in June 2025, the story underneath reveals a more balanced and even encouraging picture—especially across regional markets. Despite a 4.6% drop in national foot traffic from June 2024, Jefferies Equity Research analyst David Katz pointed to steady momentum carried over from May, calling it “the third best month of 2025 to date.”
That strength, he emphasized, highlights a broader stabilization in the sector: “which supports the stabilizing trends we’ve seen the last few months.”
June Dip Driven by Calendar, Not Collapse
Katz attributed the year-over-year decline to a relatively benign cause: one less Saturday in June compared to last year.
“We are overall impressed that the strength seen in May didn’t completely reverse in June,” Katz wrote, noting encouraging revenue reports from several key venues. That performance feeds into a more optimistic forecast for local operators.
Where Foot Traffic Is Rising—and Where It Isn’t
Regional performance painted a mixed picture across the country. Pennsylvania led the way with a 2.5% increase in footfall over last June, and traffic there is now 22.2% higher than in 2019, a significant milestone post-pandemic. Massachusetts also performed well, with a 7.5% uptick.
By contrast, more established casino hubs fared worse. Atlantic City saw 8.5% fewer visitors than a year ago and remains nearly 20% below 2019 levels. In Illinois, casino traffic slid 13.1% compared to 2019 and dropped another 2% from last year.
In Detroit, June foot traffic was down 7.8% from 2024 and a sharp 33.5% lower than pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, Ohio held nearly flat—down just 0.5% year-over-year and only 1.1% compared to 2019. Colorado’s Black Hawk casinos reported a 6.1% gain, although Katz noted that the figures were skewed by Monarch’s 2022 market entry, which is still “ramping and taking share.”
Investors Eye Growth Outside Traditional Hubs
The performance of regional operators is drawing investor attention, particularly in light of recent moves. Katz highlighted Boyd Gaming as one to watch, citing its recent divestment of a 5% FanDuel stake, which he believes could fund expanded capital returns.
He also sees upside for Caesars Entertainment, whose regional business makes up half of its cash flow, and Churchill Downs, with newly launched properties in Kentucky and Virginia. The Rose Gaming Resort, however, is off to a “moderately slow start,” according to Katz.
Penn Entertainment, meanwhile, appears to be lagging its regional rivals, suggesting a less favorable positioning within the shifting U.S. casino landscape.
Jefferies uses location data from Placer, which measures real-world movement around casinos. Katz explained that the analysis involves “indexing the data to average daily visits for the respective casino or region during the entire month of Jan 2020 and normalizing them using a smoothing multiplier.”
Stabilization, Not Acceleration
Though national numbers remain below pre-COVID figures—15.6% lower than June 2019—the consistency of results in many markets signals that U.S. casinos may be settling into a new baseline.
As Katz concluded, “the monthly performance reflects the ongoing normalization of traffic trends post-COVID, where volatility remains, as well as from competition and renovations in specific locations.”
Source:
“U.S. casino visitation stable in June, report says”, cdcgaming.com, Jul 17, 2025
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