American gambling revenues down in the recession

We now know what we had thought all along and that is that the recession has been affecting gambling income. In the USA the American Gaming Association has recently reported that revenues fell more than 5% last year compared to the year before and we assume that Europe and the rest of the world is the same. The United States could be a little different from Europe as online casinos are banned and therefore figures come purely from  the 12 states that have casinos and out of these 8 showed a decrease in activity. CEO of the trade association, Frank Fahrenkopf, said “People had less money to spend on our products,” “Until people go back to work, businesses that depend on discretionary income are going to continue to struggle.” Recent reports suggest that America is coming out of recession but nobody is willing to provide a forecast of how this might affect the casino industry this year. The four States that showed an increase were Colorado, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Indiana but there was a good reason for some of this; firstly Colorado increased opening hours and increased betting limits, Pennsylvania opened two new casinos and Missouri removed loss limits so it would appear that without action they might have also shown a loss of business. Despite these reductions the sector is estimated to provide employment for over 320,000 people and provide over £5.5 billion in tax take. Gambling in the USA will really take off when UIGEA is overturned and online casinos become legal. There is undoubtedly pent up demand for gambling in the USA.