When someone talks about gaming tourism in America and the cities that brought it to prominence in the country, Las Vegas is the first to come to mind. Nevada was the pioneer of gaming not only in the US, but also in the world in general. So when we talk about laws and major developments, we need to talk about Nevada’s rise to prominence.
Brief History of the US Gambling Laws
Nevada wasn’t always the epicenter of gambling. In actuality, gambling was prohibited from 1910 until 1931. However, as a result of the Depression’s impact on the economy, state legislators authorized gambling in an effort to raise much-needed funds.
Reno was the first city to become well-known for being a gaming tourist attraction. Reno was the center of attention from 1935 to 1947 thanks to its fascinating casinos that catered to a diverse clientele. However, it didn’t take long for the world to learn about Las Vegas, a dusty, desert stopover town in Nevada.
After WW2, Las Vegas’ fame soared, and everyone began to talk about the city’s funny neon signs and its no-holds-barred, go-go mentality. The remainder of the nation, meanwhile, remained staunchly opposed to gambling.
Las Vegas kept expanding during the 1950s and 1960s, with glitzy casinos popping up around every corner. Some of the most well-known resorts and clubs, including Caesars Place, Dunes, Stardust, Riviera, Tropicana, and Sahara, were built in the new mecca of gaming, the Strip.
In 1977, New Jersey authorized gambling in Atlantic City in reaction to Nevada’s success. The city quickly developed into a key gaming tourist attraction.
Louisiana, Illinois, and other states allowed riverboat casinos in the 1990s. In 1996, Michigan legalized gambling, establishing an economic hub for prospective casino expansion in the city of Detroit. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, as the Internet expanded, so did online gambling.
US’s Booming Online Gaming Market
Online gambling was experiencing a new boom ever since 2013, but then came the pandemic which brought it even more attention. The iGaming market saw second life on the wake of the pandemic as most of the land-based casinos were closed. Seeing this, more and more states consider making iGaming and sports betting markets legal.
The concept that there is both a market and a financial incentive for states to adopt the practice is supported by the current rate of growth for legalized sports betting and online gaming in the United States.
Current State of the US Gambling Market
Nevada
June 2022 was the 16th consecutive month with more than $1 billion in revenue, a state record. With $734.7 million in revenue, the Las Vegas Strip was the primary contributor to the rise in gaming revenue for June 2022. The figures for June were up 19.2% over June of last year. Additionally, the Strip is up 36.6% in 2022 compared to 2021. As Harry Reid International Airport registered its busiest month with 4.68 million passengers, it seems like a lot of people across the world are excited about Nevada’s gaming tourist market.
Pennsylvania
State regulators reported that casinos and other operators in Pennsylvania, one of the largest commercial casino states in the country, made more than $4.7 billion from gamblers in the calendar year 2021, setting yet another annual record for gambling revenue in the era of online gambling and sports betting. There are also lots of services and sites for the state’s residents, like iGaming PA website, a great source of news and information about the state’s gaming industry.
New Jersey
New Jersey’s May 2022 revenue from gambling amounted to $430.6 million, up from $374.2 million in May 2021 and 1.9% more than $422.5 million in April 2022.
The state of New Jersey’s biggest source of income and the biggest gaming attraction is still its land-based casinos, which generated $233.0 million in sales in May, an increase of 9.3% over the same month the previous year.
