Gaming REITs Post Steady Improvement in FFO, NOI

Gaming REITs focus on acquiring real estate dedicated to gaming, entertainment, and experiential hospitality. Their portfolio--encompassing casinos, resorts, hotels, and leisure venues like golf courses and water parks--are leased to operators through long-term, triple-net contracts that deliver steady, predictable cash flows.

Gaming REITs became large enough to qualify as a standalone sector in 2023 and have an aggregate equity market capitalization of $40.7 billion as of July 31. Since inception, the sector has provided a compound average annual total return of 0.8%. In 2026, gaming REITs have posted a total return of -1.2% through July 31 with a dividend yield of 6.98%. Full-year dividends paid over the past few years have been modestly increasing. Over the trailing year as of 2026: Q1, gaming REITs paid $2.8 billion in dividends.

Gaming REITs remain more geographically concentrated than other REIT property sectors, with four states (Nevada, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri) accounting for 48% of REIT-owned gaming properties and Nevada by itself accounting for 21% of these properties. The dominance of the top markets reflects the fact that, though the availability of gaming venues has tended to expand over recent years, participants remain attracted to certain core markets which are served by the high-quality properties of gaming REITs.

Funds from operations (FFO) has edged higher over the past few years, recording $3.7 billion in 2024 and $3.9 billion in 2025. As reported in Nareit’s REIT Industry Tracker, 2026: Q1 marked a record high in quarterly FFO as it reached $1.2 billion. Trailing four-quarter NOI growth has also been positive since the pandemic, climbing 5.2% as of 2026: Q1. As is a hallmark of the REIT industry, gaming REITs maintain well-structured balance sheets, with a leverage ratio of 38%, just above the equity REIT average of 35%.

Nareit’s Actively Managed Real Estate Fund Tracker monitors the quarterly holdings of top active real estate funds to gauge institutional investor sentiment and how this compares to sector weights in the FTSE Nareit All Equity REITs index. Data as of 2026: Q1 indicate that the gaming sector is one of the most underweight sectors, with the share of the sector in actively managed funds making up 45% of its index weight. Nareit’s research has further shown a steady decline in allocations in actively managed funds over the past few years as top-performing sectors such as data centers and health care have shown steady increases in allocations.

Barry Jonas, managing director at Truist Securities, told Nareit that when the sector first emerged about 10-15 years ago, “it was seen as an orphan and really misunderstood. But as time has moved on, we are really seeing buy-in from the REIT community.”

Investors understand that gaming REITs are “a very safe, durable stream of rent that has tenants who are sizable, most of them are public, audited, and have at this point not seen any major defaults or lack of payments made,” he said.

$71 billion: According to the American Gaming Association, commercial gaming revenue reached over $71 billion in 2025, with $46 billion of that coming from traditional casino gaming.

38.5 million: In 2025, 38.5 million people traveled to the Las Vegas area, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

1931: According to the Las Vegas Sun, the first Nevada Gaming License was issued to Mayme Stocker and J.H. Morgan in 1931.