Study: Regulation Works to Curb Offshore Gambling

Legal iGaming in the United States does not eliminate the unregulated market, but may dramatically reduce it. According to new research, in states that offer both regulated online casino gaming and sports betting, the offshore market share drops an average of 38 percent. 

 In its 2025 U.S. iGaming analysis, the Blask Index reported that offshore platforms still get the lion’s share of U.S. iGaming value—79 percent versus 21 percent. But states that have legal online casino and sports betting keep most of the action at home. For example:

     • New Jersey retains approximately 73 percent of the market domestically.

     • Michigan captures roughly 75 percent domestically.

     • Across fully regulated states, domestic share averages almost 62 percent.

 By contrast, sports betting-only states like New York forfeit about 74 percent of market share to offshore providers. Needless to add, states without legal gaming send 100 percent of online gambling activity offshore.

While no state is free of offshore competition, legal markets effectively stem the loss by more than half. As Blask concludes, the takeaway for policymakers “is pragmatic rather than ideological: full-spectrum regulation meaningfully shifts economic value onshore.”