Gaming in the U.S.

Abstract

This paper demonstrates how much legalized gaming has grown in the United States. It compares legalized gaming in the 50 states and assesses the changes over the past ten years. At least 35 states passed new gaming legislation during the past ten years, primarily as a way to increase state revenue without raising taxes. They were successful in passing the legislation because gambling today is considered just another form of middle-class recreation. The acceptance of gaming is due in part to the expansion of state lotteries over the past 29 years. Today 35 states provide a lottery, and that number is expected to go even higher in the coming years. Acceptance is also due in part to the proliferation of gaming centers on American Indian reservations. Solidified by the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, gambling is spreading rapidly on reservations. More than 170 of the 314 recognized tribes in the U.S. currently offer gaming. In the last four years the number of tribes providing legalized gaming has grown at a compounded average rate of 15 percent a year.