Study Shows Some of America's Biggest Gamblers are in Iowa

It's not a surprise that of all 50 states in the country, Nevada's gambling revenue is more than 10x that of the runner-up. Las Vegas is the mecca of gambling, nightlife, and entertainment, but with legalized sports betting and casinos popping up all across America, you don't need to go to Sin City to place a wager.

In fact, some of America's biggest gamblers reside in the Hawkeye State, according to new research from Casinos.com. The website looked at the gambling expenses of Americans across the country. They looked at the following factors in order to make their list:

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Gambling revenue
Population of 18+ (legal age gamblers)
Expenditure per capita
Average income
Percentage of average income spent gambling

Iowans Love to Roll the Dice:

Below is the table showing the top five states based on the aforementioned statistics. Iowa brought in a whopping $1.93 billion in state gambling revenue last year, good enough for fourth on the list, only behind Nevada, Mississippi, and Louisiana, respectively.

Rank	State	State Gambling Revenue ($)	Population +18	Expenditure per capita ($)	Average Income ($)	% of Average Income Spent
1	Nevada	14,842,230,000	2,445,243	6069.84	84,350	7.196%
2	Mississippi	2,574,060,000	2,257,130	1140.41	65,156	1.750%
3	Louisiana	2,593,100,000	3,541,104	732.29	73,759	0.993%
4	Iowa	1,930,790,000	2,456,703	785.93	80,316	0.979%
5	Rhode Island	688,200,000	886,783	776.06	92,427	0.840%

Midwesterners By-and-Large Love to Gamble:

Casinos.com also found that Midwesterners love to gamble quite a bit. Several Midwest states made it in the top half of the list. Here's their analysis of Midwestern gambling habits:

Heading over to the Midwest, we find Michigan and Indiana in the spotlight. Michigan boasts a substantial gambling revenue of $3.26 billion, whereas Indiana generates $2.89 billion. Surprisingly, although Indiana ranks higher in revenue, it has a lower per capita gambling expenditure ($531.15) compared to Michigan ($776.06). Both states' residents spend a similar percentage of their average income on gambling, with Indiana at 0.67% and Michigan at 0.51%.

In conclusion, the data reveals that Nevada is still the undeniable gambling capital of the United States, but America's gambling scene is as diverse as its landscape, with each state offering its unique experience to gamblers. States like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Rhode Island are also a big draw for people hoping to try their luck.

Photo Credit: Casinos.com

Other Notable Takeaways:

As can be expected, Nevada blows every other US state out of the water due to it being the home of the Fabulous Las Vegas. Excluding the Silver State, Mississippi is home to America’s Biggest Gamblers with Mississippians spending on average 1.75% of their annual income on gambling in 2022.
Louisiana and Iowa follow in third and fourth place overall with their average annual gambling expenditure amounting to 0.993% and 0.979% of their annual incomes, respectively.
The state which spends the least amount of their income per year on gambling is Montana, with just 0.011% of their annual incomes being spent on gambling in 2022, followed closely by Nebraska with 0.012% and then Oregon with just 0.017%.

Stats provided via Casinos.com