The global gambling landscape has changed dramatically over the last decade. Cryptocurrencies, live casino gaming, the changing US attitude to gambling – all of these things have had a huge impact on the multibillion dollar global business. But, how popular are online casinos now really? And are they bigger than sports betting? 

Well, the simple answer is sports betting is still the most popular form of gambling globally. But this article will look at the stats, the numbers and the facts of the market – as well as where things aren’t so clear – to answer the question more exactly. Then it will discuss why the market is as it is right now, and how that might change in the future.

Land Based is Still on Top, But Things are Changing Fast

While you might think online gambling is bigger than land-based casinos and sportsbooks – you’d be wrong. It is catching up, and growing faster, but, globally, more money is gambled at physical casinos and retail sportsbooks, than online.

Globally, the gambling market is valued at around $300 billion a year across various estimates from analysts. Factoring in the black market, which is huge, it could easily be $500 billion a year.

For a simple comparison, all the licensed gambling venues in the US in 2024 made $50.4 billion between them and tribal casinos made another $43 billion. The largest online gambling operator in the world, Flutter Entertainment, made $14.9 billion that year.

A huge global online gambling operator like Betway malawi might make a couple of hundred million per year. So there is a lot of variation. But, despite the obvious attractions of online gambling – accessibility, variety, promos and bonuses – globally people still seem to prefer betting at a physical location.

However, this might not be the case for long. Online gambling, without including the offshore market, is growing fast. In the US for example, 2025 was the first year that online casinos overtook physical casino gambling in any state (New Jersey) although the entire market is stymied by slower adoption across many states than sports betting.

Online sports betting also had huge growth in the US, hitting triple digit growth once again as several more states legalized across 2025. Online gambling now accounts for around 35% of gambling the US, at around $20 billion a year in revenues.

Demand, Accessibility and User Preferences are Also Shifting

Sports betting and online casinos are both gambling, with some crossover of their audiences. But they also have key differences. Sports betting has a much wider total market, but casino gamblers tend to spend more (on average).

Sports betting is also dependent on major sports events and leagues. Operators are experimenting with ways to keep up market interest in the off-season of big sports, but the fact is most action (and therefore revenues) arrives during big events.

Gambling operators, especially big ones, are increasingly diversifying into both areas in order to maximise potential revenue streams throughout the year. With many sportsbooks now in players’ pockets 24/7, cross-selling them on online casinos has become easier than ever.

Big American casino operators are also increasing their presence in the global online game, as laws slowly change at home. This has increased market competition and given players more choice (and more advertising).

Challenges and Future Market Moves – Will Casino Gaming Rise to the Top?

For online casinos to truly take off ahead of land-based gambling and sports betting all over the world, there will need to be some big changes. Online casinos are still not regulated in many of the most populous US states that have big sports betting markets, and offshore platforms still dominate the global scene.

However, the entire sector is predicted to grow strongly. While people keep counting out Las Vegas, for the moment, it continues to show strong gambling revenues as operators double down on the luxury, high-end gambling market even while mass tourism declines. The Asian-gambling hub of Macau is still booming, doing more trade than Las Vegas, and the global market for cryptocurrency sports betting and casino sites is also going strong.

In the US, sports betting was legalized in several more states towards the back end of 2025, which will be reflected in 2026’s growth figures. Interestingly, some of those states went for the online only approach. Online sports betting spend dwarfs retail sports betting in the US in states that have both, and online operations have significantly fewer overheads.

However, protectionist policies – often championed by the giant tribal gaming operators – have kept sports betting as retail only for a while in some states. The patchwork regulatory framework in the US – and even places like the EU – holds online gambling back in a way that isn’t felt so much by physical casinos.

So will online gambling overtake land-based operations in 2026? The jury is still out on this year, but few would bet against online coming for the crown in the next half decade.