Morgan Stanley: By 2020 Online Gambling Will be Bigger Than Vegas and AC Combined

Morgan Stanley upgraded Boyd Gaming’s stock to Overweight Thursday, sending its share price soaring. 

Boyd, which is teaming up with bwin.party to offer online gambling in the US once regulation occurs, saw its shares climb 10.37% to $9.05.

Morgan Stanley claims that by 2020 online gambling in the U.S. will be as big as a business as today’s real-world gambling centers of Las Vegas and Atlantic City combined.

The analysts see Boyd as the best play on that trend.  From Motley Fool:

In our base case (now factored into our BYD estimates), we model the legal US online gaming market to be ~$670 million in 2014, increasing to $9.3 billion in 2020 (55% CAGR). Put into context, by 2020, we estimate online gaming in the US to be the same size as the current Las Vegas Strip ($6.2 billion of gaming revenue in 2012) and Atlantic City ($3 billion in 2012) markets. Note the US online gaming market was estimated to be $5.3 billion ($7.5 billion adjusted for inflation) before it was banned in late 2006.

- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com