For anyone else, this question would be a tall order. But for your dedicated servants and crack researchers at Question of the Day, this is ... still a tall order. Of course, we love a challenge and are happy to oblige, with an assist from the Washington, D.C.-based American Gaming Association (AGA), the key lobbyist for the gambling industry.
All the following information is current through 2006.
Eleven states have a total of 460 commercial casinos. In order of number of casinos (with the numbers of casinos in parentheses), they are: Nevada (274; limited to locations with gross gaming revenues of $1 million or more); Colorado (46); South Dakota (36); Mississippi (27); Iowa and Louisiana (16 apiece); New Jersey, Missouri, and Indiana (11 each); Illinois (9); and Michigan (3). South Dakota and Colorado offer limited-stakes gaming only. Pennsylvania has slot casinos and wide-open gambling is legal, but no full-service casinos are operational as yet.
Twenty-eight states have a total of 372 Native American tribal casinos. Oklahoma has 79, California 58, Washington 32, Montana and Wisconsin 24, Arizona 23, New Mexico 21, Minnesota 20, Michigan 15, South Dakota 11, and Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wyoming have less than 10 each.
The Las Vegas Strip, of course, is the U.S.' number-one casino market (with $6.68 billion in gaming revenues). The Boulder Strip is number 9 ($929.7 million). Reno ranks just above the Boulder Strip at number 8 ($939.5 million). Downtown Las Vegas is number 16 ($630.2 million), with Laughlin just below it at number 17 ($629.8 milion).
Atlantic City is #2 ($5.2 billion); Chicagoland #3 ($2.59 billion); Connecticut #4 ($1.73 billion); Detroit #5 ($1.3 billion); Tunica #6 ($1.25 billion); St. Louis #7 ($990 million); and Shreveport #10 ($847.1 million).
Altogether, the gambling industry employs 366,000 people (a 3.2% increase over 2005). Nevada leads the crop with 215,000, then New Jersey (45,000), Mississippi (26,000; down 10% from 2005 due to Katrina), Louisiana (17,900; down 3%), Indiana (16,000), Missouri (10,900), Iowa (9,700), Illinois (8,800), Colorado (7,800), Michigan (6,900), and South Dakota (2,000). The 366,000 casino employees earned $13.3 billion total (an average wage of $36,328).
In an interesting statistic, the AGA compared consumer spending at casinos with other "spending choices." Consumers spent $32.42 billion at casinos in 2006, compared to $291.5 billion on home-remodeling projects; $142.9 billion on fast food; $70.1 billion on soda; $68.2 billion on cable television; $16.1 billion on books; $12.3 billion on Starbucks (well, specialty coffees, anyway); and $9.5 billion attending movies in theaters.
