Which are the most Gambling addicted US states of the year?

The US scoring company Wallethub analyzed a lot of data from all US states to find out in which areas of the United States gambling addiction is a particularly big issue. The title of the current study was “2021’s Most Gambling-Addicted States”. The first surprise followed at the beginning of the study: Wallethub found that for many US citizens the topic of gambling is relatively insignificant. Many of them only visit a casino sporadically or take part in a lottery from time to time.

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1 to 3% of US citizens could be addicted to gambling

In the research, researchers made the claim that between 1% and 3% of adults in the United States could be addicted to gambling. Similar to alcohol or drugs, gambling addiction can be addictive, since in all cases the brain’s reward system is stimulated. In addition, the US study also showed that the issue of gambling addiction is present very differently in the states. In total, Wallethub examined and classified all 50 states based on 21 previously defined criteria.

As reported by the Internet portal debt.org, around 23 million US residents are currently in debt because of their problematic gambling behavior. Each affected person is accordingly in the red with an average of 55,000 US dollars.

Which is the most addicting US state in 2021?

The analysis of the data showed that Nevada was named “Most Gambling State in the US” this year. In view of the fact that the world-famous “casino metropolis” Las Vegas is located here, the title is not really a surprise. Because the topic of gambling is almost omnipresent in this western US state, the negative consequences of the gambling sector are particularly noticeable. Above all, this includes gambling addiction, which was the subject of the current study. Just some time ago we reported on whether the cryptocurrency Bitcoin was about to make a breakthrough in Las Vegas.

Utah is at the bottom of the ranking

The so-called “The Beehive State” is in last place in the Wallethub ranking. We’re talking about the US state of Utah, which has only around three million inhabitants. But why are the negative consequences of gambling obviously hardly a serious problem here?

This is mainly due to the fact that the Mormons predominate here as a religious community. Both local law and people’s beliefs prohibit gambling. For this reason, gambling addiction and problematic gambling behavior are hardly an issue in the desert state. Just a few weeks ago we reported in an article about another US study that said that the risk of gambling addiction is significantly greater for younger people. The US state of Hawaii is also at the bottom of the ranking (43rd place). Gambling is illegal here too, so that there are hardly any negative consequences of gambling either.

A total of 21 criteria were examined in the course of the study. These included the categories “Gambling problems and gambling treatment” or “Gambling friendliness” (e.g. number of arcades, search engine queries).

Conclusion

The recently published study by the US scoring company Wallethub shows very clearly that the United States deals with the topic of gambling very differently from region to region. While gambling is generally prohibited in some US states such as Utah or Hawaii, other states such as Nevada are leading the way around the world and offer a number of entertainment options in cities such as Las Vegas. It is therefore no surprise that the ranking of the list “The Most Gambling States of the Year 2021” is headed by the desert state of Nevada. Overall, between 1% and 3% of adult people in the United States could have gambling addiction.