Online gaming — iCasino, iPoker, and daily fantasy — generated $12.8 billion in gross gaming revenue in 2025 across seven legal states. New York, Illinois, Indiana, and Virginia are in active legislative consideration. These four states together represent one of the largest remaining market expansion opportunities in U.S. consumer services.
The operators who will win disproportionate share in those markets when they open are not necessarily the ones with the largest advertising budgets. They are the ones building communications infrastructure now, before legalization, when the first-mover advantage in earned media is still available to claim. 5WPR’s gaming practice works with operators across all three segments of the U.S. gambling market on exactly this kind of pre-legalization communications strategy.
5WPR Insights
What Michigan’s 2021 Launch Established
The 2021 Michigan online gaming launch is the most instructive data point available for operators planning expansion-state strategies. Michigan was the first major state to legalize iCasino alongside sports betting, and its launch attracted both established operators and new market entrants simultaneously.
The pattern that emerged: operators with pre-existing earned media presence in the Michigan market — coverage in Detroit Free Press, MLive, Michigan-focused sports media, and relevant trade press — achieved faster initial user acquisition than operators who arrived with equivalent advertising budgets but no earned media footprint. Earned media builds category familiarity and brand credibility in the period before a consumer makes their first deposit decision. Advertising builds awareness. Consumers who encounter a brand through earned media before they encounter it through advertising are more likely to try it and more likely to retain.
New York, Illinois, Indiana, and Virginia will replicate this dynamic. The operators earning coverage in those markets now — in state political press, regional sports media, consumer finance outlets, and local business journalism — are building an asset that advertising spend at launch cannot replicate.
The Category Education Problem
Online gaming faces a structural communications challenge that sports betting has largely overcome: most Americans do not know it is legal anywhere. Even in the seven states where iCasino is currently licensed, awareness of product legality remains lower than sports betting awareness at comparable stages of its legalization curve.
This creates a specific communications opportunity for operators willing to invest in category education rather than just brand marketing. The operator that becomes the recognized voice explaining what legal online gaming is, how it differs from offshore alternatives, what the regulatory framework looks like, and why it is a legitimate consumer product will have a brand association with category credibility that pure advertising cannot build. None of the major operators have yet claimed this position in the expansion-pipeline states. It is available.
The Regulatory Narrative Matters Before the Vote
State legislative processes for online gaming legalization are long, contentious, and heavily influenced by the reputational standing of the operators who will benefit. Legislators and their staff read the press. Gaming commission staff track how operators in existing legal states have conducted themselves. The earned media record an operator builds in the 18 months before a legalization vote is part of the case that gets made, explicitly or implicitly, in every regulatory conversation.
Operators who have invested in proactive communications — executive visibility, responsible gambling leadership, transparent engagement with state-specific policy questions — enter those conversations with credibility. Operators who have not are starting from zero at the worst possible moment. 5WPR’s gaming team builds exactly this kind of pre-legalization earned media infrastructure for operators with expansion-state ambitions.
The Practical Playbook
For online gaming operators planning for the next wave of state legalizations, the communications playbook has four components that should be running simultaneously in the 18 months before a target state’s expected legalization vote.
State media relationship building. Identify the five to ten journalists in each target state who cover gambling, consumer finance, technology, and state politics. Build relationships before there is anything to announce. Be available as a source on category-level stories. Become familiar before you become a brand.
Category education content. Build a library of owned content — published on company platforms and distributed through relevant channels — that explains legal online gaming, distinguishes it from offshore alternatives, and documents the consumer protection framework that licensed operators operate under. This content serves SEO, GEO, and regulatory positioning simultaneously.
Responsible gambling visibility. Establish and publicize the responsible gambling program before the market opens. Make the investment level public. Name the third-party partners. Create content that demonstrates genuine commitment rather than regulatory compliance. Legislators and gaming commission staff in pre-legalization states will look for this.
Executive visibility. Senior leadership should be recognizable voices in the industry conversation in target states before legalization. Op-eds in state business press. Participation in industry conferences that draw state-level attention. Available for comment to journalists covering legalization debates. The executive who is already known to the people making licensing decisions has a structural advantage over the one who introduces themselves for the first time at the application stage.
The window for each of these investments is open. It closes, in each state, at legalization. The operators who start now will have an asset that no amount of launch advertising can replicate.
5WPR’s gaming and gambling practice serves sports betting operators, online gaming platforms, and land-based casino brands across PR, crisis communications, executive visibility, and digital content strategy. The 5WPR Gaming Trust Index 2026 — the first annual study of marketing spend allocation and brand credibility across the U.S. gambling market — is available free at 5wpr.com/research/gaming-trust-index-2026. For inquiries: [email protected] | 5wpr.com | 5wpr.net
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