The internet has been the single greatest pacemaker of change in the world economy over the past several decades. Coupled with the advent of smart devices, it has disrupted every industry and ushered in an era of consumption unlike anything seen before across the globe. The reverbations of this disturbance have also reached the casino and gambling universe, where casinos games and sports betting, two distinct segments of a traditional gambling setup, now functioning as interconnected parts of a single digital marketplace. Understanding this shift is crucial for investors who are trying to preempt the next phase of development in gambling. The premise is simple. Casino owners draw in new users through online sports betting, a relatively lower margin gambling endeavor, and offer casino games, poker, and other products within the same digital haven to generate higher margins and longer engagement.
The opportunities seem endless. For example, investment banking company Goldman Sachs projects that Americans are on track to spend $45 billion on sports betting each year. This figure is all the more impressive given the fact that the US Supreme Court only legalized sports betting through a landmark ruling in 2018. Meanwhile, the online gambling market, which includes casino games, poker, and lotteries, is now valued at close to $100 billion. Both these markets are growing annually at double-digit rates. The mobile-first tech revolution has also enabled new forms of engagement, including in-play betting that allows users to place wagers during live sporting events rather than before they begin. At the same time, artificial intelligence has become increasingly important for operators seeking to personalize user experiences, adjust betting odds in real time, and identify patterns that may indicate problematic gambling behavior.
In parallel with this dramatic shift, another disruptor is transforming the gambling landscape even more quickly. This is the crypto casino operating in a largely unregulated space. These casinos allow players to wager using digital assets instead of traditional currencies, offering features such as faster transactions, reduced fees, and fewer identity requirements. Estimates suggest that crypto gambling platforms have crossed $80 billion in gross gaming revenue in recent years, after a dramatic surge in activity since 2022. Individual platforms have achieved extraordinary scale in a short period of time, attracting millions of users globally and rivaling the revenues of some established gambling companies. These platforms frequently operate from offshore jurisdictions and rely on digital wallets rather than conventional payment systems, which allows them to reach users in markets where online gambling may be restricted.
To understand crypto casinos, it is also important to look at influencer marketing, an advertisement tool that leverages endorsements and product placements from social media personalities with dedicated, niche followings to boost brand awareness and sales. Influencers and livestreaming platforms have played a central role in promoting crypto gambling, with some high-profile streamers broadcasting their gameplay to tens of thousands of viewers simultaneously. These broadcasts often showcase dramatic wins and high-stakes wagers, generating excitement and curiosity among audiences who may never have previously engaged with gambling platforms. Many countries—including the United States, the United Kingdom, and China—restrict or ban crypto gambling platforms. Yet players frequently bypass these restrictions using VPNs or offshore websites.
In addition to these two monumental shifts in the casino business, investors also need to consider a third, more under-the-radar, change that is perhaps the most consequential of all. It is the rapid rise of prediction markets. For those unfamiliar with this term, prediction markets are platforms where people can bet on the outcome of future events. The twist is that almost nothing is off-limits. For example, by buying and selling shares in the outcomes, participants collectively forecast the likelihood of events as diverse as the bombing of Iran to who wins the next Oscar for best motion picture. Two of the biggest names in the prediction market space are Kalshi and Polymarket. The latter, founded in 2020, is valued at approximately $20 billion already. The former, valued at more than $11 billion, was founded by Tarek Mansour, an equity derivatives intern at Goldman Sachs in 2016.
Reports suggest that the prediction market offering of Robinhood, a stock trading application, has already become the fastest-growing product line by revenue in the history of the company. Robinhood ventured into the world of prediction markets in 2024, during the US presidential election. Since then, it has expanded into online sports betting as well. Per the company, since the end of last year, 11 billion contracts have been traded by more than one million Robinhood customers. The success of these prediction markets has attracted the attention of Wall Street bigwigs like David Solomon, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, who said earlier this year that he had met with the bosses of major prediction markets and wanted to understand the opportunities on offer. Solomon noted that he had a team of people who were spending time with the leadership of prediction market platforms and looking at their business models in detail.
Our Methodology
To compile our list of the 10 best casino stocks to buy in 2026, we reviewed various online resources and financial media reports to compile a list of the best casino stocks. Next, we focused on the top 10 stocks most favored by institutional investors. Data for the hedge fund sentiment surrounding each stock was taken from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2025 database of 1041 elite hedge funds. Finally, the 10 best casino stocks to buy in 2026 were ranked in ascending order based on the number of hedge funds holding stakes in them as of Q4 2025.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 498.7% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 303 percentage points (see more details here).
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Best Casino Stocks to Buy in 2026
10. Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI)
Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI) posted earnings for the fourth quarter last month, reporting earnings per share of $1.25, missing market estimates by $0.12. The revenue over the period was in excess of $140 million, up over 4% compared to the revenue over the same period last year and surpassing expectations by $0.61 million. The firm also declared a $0.30/share quarterly dividend, in line with previous, with the forward yield at 1.27%. Following the release of the earnings, Jeffrey Stantial from Stifel Nicolaus maintained a Hold rating on the stock with a price target of $97.
Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI) is also in the spotlight amid reports that Vanguard Group has decreased a stake in the firm by 1.5% during the third quarter, according to the most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,024,729 shares of the company’s stock after selling 16,102 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group owned about 5.61% of Monarch Casino & Resort worth $108,457,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. In contrast to the Vanguard position, investment firm American Century has boosted their stake in the firm.
Monarch Casino & Resort, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCRI) owns and operates hotels and casinos. It owns and operates hotels and casinos under the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, Nevada and the Monarch Casino Resort Spa Black Hawk in Black Hawk, Colorado.
9. Bally’s Corporation (NYSE:BALY)
Bally’s Corporation (NYSE:BALY) Chairman Soo Kim said late last month that the company was evaluating the possibility of bidding to run an integrated resort in Japan. The CEO described the country as an extremely attractive market. The comments come as Japan prepares for a second application window for IR licences. The existing framework, enacted in 2018, allows for up to three large-scale casino resorts. However, since enactment, only one project has been approved: the Osaka IR led by MGM Resorts International and Orix Corporation. Two licences remain available, and the central government has provisionally scheduled a new application period from May to November 2027.
Bally’s Corporation (NYSE:BALY) stock has also received a boost following the approval of three long-awaited downstate casino licenses for New York. The three approved projects in the area are Bally’s casino-hotel complex at Ferry Point Park in the Bronx, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Metropolitan Park project near Citi Field in Queens, and an expansion of Resorts World New York City at Aqueduct in Queens to a full commercial casino. Bally’s Bronx is a ground-up resort build and is being guided toward an opening ahead of the mid-2030s period.
Bally’s Corporation (NYSE:BALY) is a global entertainment brand with 19 casinos across 11 US states and one casino in Newcastle, UK, along with a golf course in New York and a horse racetrack in Colorado. Bally’s also owns Bally Bet, a first-in-class sports betting and igaming platform, licensed in 13 jurisdictions in North America.
8. Penn Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PENN)
Penn Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PENN) is one of the few gambling companies that have announced no major inroads into the prediction markets. Last month, during the fourth quarter earnings call, CEO Jay Snowden said that controversy surrounding sports event contracts had put companies like his in an awkward position, and that he hoped the US Supreme Court stepped in on the matter sooner rather than later. Snowden had earlier termed the rise of prediction markets as the major threat to sports betting, suggesting that prediction markets, currently legal in all 50 states, could expand into casino-style games.
Penn Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PENN) is in sports betting through a business that was rebranded last year to be called theScore Bet. The company previously partnered with ESPN on ESPN Bet, but in November, it began winding down that business two years after a high-profile debut. In earnings for the fourth quarter, the revenue of the firm rose from about $1.7 billion in 2024 to $1.81 billion in 2025. For the full year, the company reported total revenues of nearly $7 billion, up from just under $6.6 billion in 2024.
Penn Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:PENN) provides integrated entertainment, sports content, and casino gaming experiences in the United States and internationally. It operates a portfolio of casinos, racetracks, and online sports betting. It also engages in gaming operations, including slot machines and table games, food and beverage offerings, and hotel visitation.
7. DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ:DKNG)
DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ:DKNG) recently announced plans to roll out a new gambling super application called DraftKings Sports & Casino that brings together sportsbook, online casino, and lottery products into a single, jurisdiction-tailored platform. Per the firm, the new application will allow users to use a single login and a shared wallet across the different platform categories. The app will also adjust offerings tailored to laws within specific states. Last week, the firm tied the super app and related AI-driven efficiencies to an ambitious long-term adjusted EBITDA margin target of at least 30%, pitching the unified platform as both a distribution breakthrough and a source of durable competitive advantage.
Wall Street has reacted positively to this announcement. Investment firms like Macquarie, BMO, Jefferies, BTIG, Canaccord, and others have highlighted the unified app as a catalyst for more efficient customer acquisition, stronger cross-product engagement, better personalization, and a larger total addressable market for DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ:DKNG) into 2030. Jefferies analyst David Katz said the new comprehensive super app should be a key driver of market share for DraftKings this year.
DraftKings Inc. (NASDAQ:DKNG) operates as a digital sports entertainment and gaming company in the United States and internationally. The company offers online and retail sports betting, daily fantasy sports, digital lottery couriers, prediction markets, and other products, as well as retail sportsbooks.
6. Caesars Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:CZR)
Caesars Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:CZR) stock is expected to receive a boost from the construction trade show being held in Las Vegas this week. Per analysts, these shows are valuable to Strip operators like Caesars because the show visitors and participants spend more per trip than the average leisure visitor, with some estimates placing this number at about 30% more than typical visitors, meaningfully supporting gaming, food‑and‑beverage, and entertainment revenue lines in an otherwise softer demand environment. For companies like Caesars, strong convention weeks are important catalysts to stabilize and potentially re‑accelerate top‑line trends.
Caesars Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:CZR) is also in the news amid reports that it is weighing buyout offers, including one from gambling heavyweight Tilman Fertitta. Fertitta bought the Golden Nugget Las Vegas and Laughlin properties in the mid-2000s, and later expanded the Golden Nugget brand to Atlantic City, Biloxi, and Lake Charles. He also purchased the former Trump Marina in 2011. The company controls more than 50 casinos across North America, including the Caesars Palace, and also runs a betting app.
Caesars Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:CZR) operates as a gaming and hospitality company. It owns, leases, brands, or manages properties with slot machines, video lottery terminals and e-tables, and hotel rooms, as well as table games, including poker. The company also operates and conducts online gaming, retail and online sports wagering.
5. Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD)
Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD) announced at the end of last month that it had signed a deal with competitor Bally’s Corporation to sell the Sam’s Town Hotel & Casino in Shreveport, Louisiana to the latter for an undisclosed amount. The site in downtown Shreveport features a 29,000-square-foot casino with 750 slot machines and 14 table games, a 514-room hotel, multiple restaurants, a live entertainment venue, and convention and meeting space. Boyd Gaming CEO Keith Smith said the sale of the property was consistent with the casino company’s continued focus on refining its operating model and nationwide property portfolio.
Earlier in February, Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD) posted earnings for the fourth fiscal quarter, reporting earnings per share of $2.21 beating estimates by $0.27, and a revenue of $1.1 billion, surpassing expectations by $80 million. During the earnings call, CEO Smith projected that the online segment of the firm will generate EBITDA of $30 million to $35 million in 2026, reflecting continued growth from Boyd Interactive and changes in revenue share agreements related to the FanDuel transaction.
Boyd Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD) operates as a multi-jurisdictional gaming company in the United States and Canada. The company operates through Las Vegas Locals, Downtown Las Vegas, Midwest & South, and Online segments. It owns and operates casinos, Boyd Interactive, an online casino gaming business, and a travel agency.
