For Accel Entertainment, it seems less is more.
During Tuesday’s earnings call, Accel CEO Mark Phelan noted that the operator achieved 7% growth in its largest market, Illinois, despite having less locations and machines. Phelan said this reflects the benefits of Accel’s route-optimization strategy.
“We’re improving location quality, deploying better content, and putting capital behind these opportunities, leading to stronger returns, as evidenced in both the revenue and whole per day metrics,” Phelan said. “More broadly, through the first nine months of 2026, we haven’t observed the material impact on our business from the macroeconomic factors affecting other areas of consumer spending.”
Accel reported 3Q26 revenue was $364 million, an increase of 10% year over year. Adjusted EBITDA increased 12% to $57 million. Net income was $21 million compared to $13 million the prior-year period, an increase of approximately 55%.
Phelan noted that while other states, including Georgia, Nebraska, and Louisiana, continue to scale, Nevada gives the operator a substantial platform with significant opportunity for operational improvement and Fairmount Park (in Collinsville, Illinois) continues to validate Accel’s investment in the property.
“We’re increasingly focused not simply on adding revenue, but on converting our growth into meaningful earnings and cash flow,” Phelan said. “An important part of what differentiates Accel is the strength of the platform we provide our location partners. We manage virtually every aspect of the gaming operation — compliance, equipment, content, payments, location security, machine maintenance, cash management, promotions, and analytics. That integrated approach strengthens our relationships with our partners, allows us to continuously optimize location performance, and creates meaningful operating leverage as we scale.”
Phelan also noted that the Illinois Gaming Board has granted Accel licenses to place gaming terminals at locations in Chicago. He expects roughly 700-1,400 locations, of 2,500 available licenses in the city, to be up and running in the near future.
“With our first locations expected to go live in the next several weeks because we are already operating at significant scale across Illinois, we expect to support Chicago largely through our existing infrastructure, allowing us to enter the market with relatively modest incremental overhead and attractive economics,” Phelan said. “We’re prepared to move quickly as additional licenses are issued and locations become operational.
“Based on our current plans, we expect to deploy approximately four-and-a-half machines per location, and add approximately 100 to 200 locations annually as the market develops. Over time, as the market matures, we believe we will capture approximately one third of the Chicago market, broadly consistent with our share across the rest of Illinois.”
