At the present time, there is some form of gambling, whether it be lotteries, Indian reservation gaming, riverboats or card clubs, or straight casino gambling, in forty-eight of the fifty states. Perhaps all the states eventually will have gambling; all signs point to this happening. What at one time caused moral indignation is now a commonplace. People are willing to wager money on some form of gaming, and the states and municipalities, hungry and desperate for infusions of tax money, are willing to provide their citizens with the opportunity.
Nevada is still the leading state as far as gaming is concerned. You can wager on anything here, but the state doesn't have a lottery. It doesn't need one. Games such as Quarter mania and Megabucks provide the players with opportunities to make millions by risking several coins or dollars.

Atlantic City, New Jersey, when it first legalized gambling, was thought of as a serious competitor to Nevada, especially Las Vegas, but since gambling has been introduced in the Garden State, Nevada has experienced an explosive growth in gaming. Atlantic City is an example of a community which hasn't benefited at all from gambling. The influx of customers has merely lined the pockets of the casino owners who put up sumptuous palaces to attract them. Still, more casinos are going up, and business continues to increase in A.C. A lot of jobs have been created, but the city is still a slum, and the tourists stay in the hotels or venture along the boardwalk, and that is it.

Mississippi, with its liberal riverboat laws, has moved into prominence in American gambling. It now ranks third in revenues, an amazing situation for a conservative, rural, and Bible Belt state. Other states along the Mississippi and Great Lakes have jumped into riverboat gaming with both feet-for example, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois. The heartland of America has embraced legalized gaming in a big way.

Washington State and Colorado haven't been shy about making various forms of gambling available. Montana has legalized certain table games. A backwater like Deadwood, South Dakota, has brought itself national attention by legalizing gambling, and in the process, pushed real estate values to the sky in that small, isolated community. Gambling does that: Towns magically rise up when gambling becomes big business. A good example of this is in Laughlin, Nevada, where Mr. Laughlin named a city after himself and built a casino on the Colorado River. In the space of a few years, this has become one of the Mecca’s of gambling in Nevada.