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As we all know, the rise of legal sports betting has been a boon to most of the United States. Now that Missouri has legalized sports betting, we’re up to 39 out of 50 states with some type of regulated market. In states across the land, hundreds of millions are being wagered every day.
However, that’s all come at the cost of Las Vegas and Nevada in general. Before the Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on sports betting in 2018, the Silver State was effectively the “only show in town” for sports gambling. Now over six years later, money that would’ve otherwise been spent on Las Vegas sports betting establishments has instead went to states that just legalized.
But before you dance on Vegas’ grave, there’s a new report out that has to be considered. As it turns out, the city of Vegas (and the state) is still the king of sports betting based on one important category. Keep reading and we’ll explain all about it!
Nevada Leads The Way In Per Capita Betting
Alright, this is an interesting news source, let’s just say that. It comes courtesy of a France-based Gamdom Casino — it’s an online platform that revolves around Bitcoin. Is it 100 percent accurate? Probably not, but they also have no “dog in this fight” — as in they don’t stand to make money off the findings so we think it’s worth contemplating their findings.
Anyways, Gamdom wanted to see the states with the best sports betting markets per capita. For those not familiar with the Latin language, that means per person. Gamdom says that based on that metric, Nevada has the best sports betting market in the country for all of 2024. By a longshot too.
They believe that Nevadans (who bet only, not non-bettors) placed $1,815 in sports bets in 2024 — 198 percent more than the average American. When you account for the entire state’s population and that average number, Gameon says that’s $5.8 billion in sports bets for the year. This is among true locals, not tourists who visit and happen to make a sports bet while there.
The figure blows out the competition. The next-best state was New Jersey at $1,398 — about 20 percent under Nevada. New York finished third at $1,087. The list was rounded out by No. 4 Massachusetts($1,041), Arizona ($929), and Maryland ($919).
Speaking of New York, they’ve taken Nevada’s thunder in this industry. Ever since legalizing sports wagering in January 2022, New York has become the number-one market for betting. During all of 2024, the state reported $22.6 billion spent by bettors on sports. That’s a whole $3.5 billion more than what it reported in 2023. Still, that number is being boosted by the state’s new large population and average income.
So what’s the reason for Nevada’s per-capita success despite all the “new kids on the block” taking some of its shine? We want to explore that in the next section.
Betting Culture Runs Deep In Nevada
It’s important to level-set just how big Nevada’s per capita number of $1,815 really is. Gamdom’s same report pegged the national average at $609. So Nevada bettors are 3X the national average.
Not just that, but look at the low end of Gamdom’s states. Of the 32 states they studied, South Dakota bettors were the most stingy. On average, they fork over a whopping $7.63 per bettor. Can you sense our sarcasm through your screen?
“Since its inception, sports betting has been a rapidly growing business in the states in which it’s legal,” Felix Romer, founder of Gamdom, said alongside the report findings. “This data demonstrates just that, and it’s certainly interesting to see which among those states are embracing it the most. The figures are generally quite astounding in their scale. The amount of money wagered in the top few states is certainly a shocking statistic when compared to the average American state where sports betting is legal.”
So what makes Nevada so special? Well, history and culture, obviously. We mean, sports betting has been legal there since 1949. In other words, generations of bettors have been birthed and died in the state by now. That makes betting frictionless whereas folks in other states are still “warming up” to the idea of putting money on games.
Sports betting just seeps into the state culture after all those decades. It helps when sportsbooks across the Silver State incentivize betting — in ways that other states or even mobile betting apps can’t really rival.
Here’s a fascinating story out of Circa Sportsbook, one of the most impressive physical bookies in the whole country. They just rewarded a cool $1 million to an “average Joe” named Daniel Skubal. To be fair, Daniel earned it. He won the Circa Million contest that tasked bettors with making five against-the-spread picks all NFL regular season long. The 37-year-old accountant went 60-26-4 ATS (69.8 percent) through the season to beat out 5,817 other entries in the contest.
Real-life stories like Daniel’s are commonplace in Nevada, which no doubt helps cultivate this sports betting culture. That’s why we don’t see anyone knocking out Nevada in per-capita betting anytime soon. You can’t just unwind 70-plus years of in-state sports betting culture like that (and other states have a long way to go).
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