None of that holds a candle to the whopping value of the legal US gambling industry.

That number? More than $215 billion, according to the results of a monthlong examination of state and local records. PlayUSA aimed to put a number on the value of the legal industries of games of chance and skill in 2021. That includes all forms of gambling, from sports betting and online poker to slot machines and lotteries. This may be the best available data — and it’s a strikingly huge number. However, it’s also certainly a low-ball figure that overlooks gambling-themed charity activities, revenue for illegal offshore casino websites, play in nearby international waters on cruise ships, March Madness brackets and more.

Still, at $215 billion, that’s more than double the combined cost of all US foreign aid ($51 billion), President Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan ($34 billion), the value of the US porn industry ($10 billion) and a year’s worth of all the ice cream and sherbet sold in America ($7.6 billion).

Gambling is forever as American as apple pie

As online gambling continues to expand into new states — among other ways the casino business evolves — the number is guaranteed to keep ballooning, said Alan Feldman, a distinguished fellow. He focuses on responsible gambling at the University of Nevada Las Vegas’ International Gaming Institute.

Feldman said that Americans have enjoyed playing games of chance since the British colonists gambled to pass the time on the ships crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the New World.

In 1863, in fact, Harper’s Weekly ran a story about Civil War soldiers passing time that included: “Some inveterate players, belonging to the Ninety-third New York, were provided with a table, dice and a tin cup for a dice box and, under charge of a guard, were kept at their favorite amusement all day, playing for beans, with boards slung on their shoulders with the word GAMBLER written on them.”

That as a legal, regulated industry, gambling would blossom into such a massive economic powerhouse in the US was pre-ordained, Feldman said.

“These numbers sound right, and they do not surprise me, in part, because the gambling industry, led by the casino and tribal casinos, have come to realize that this is a lot of fun if you give people a reason to come and a reason to stay and relax and enjoy themselves.

Feldman, previously the longtime spokesperson for MGM Resorts and its prior incarnations, “This can be – in point of fact, should be – a very healthy, fun activity.”

PlayUSA Casino lead analyst Eric Ramsey admitted being startled about where the industry fits in the context of other businesses and endeavors. Ramsey said: “It’s a little jarring for me to hear those numbers even though I stare at gambling numbers.

“I’m sitting here looking at sports betting revenue, where last year, it was about $4 billion. That seems like an enormous number to me. Those are numbers we’ve never seen before in this industry in this country. And then you’re throwing out numbers like $200 billion for the larger gambling industry. To have the context that it’s more than all the football franchises, I never thought about that scale.”

$215 billion in legal gambling, broken down

The task of deciding how to define “value” and what to include in elements of the “legal gambling industry” was vexing. The industry generates a lot of data for public consumption, much of it of little use, of unknown origin or unverifiable to journalists or analysts.

PlayUSA chose to combine the following metrics to derive its figure:

$105.26 billion: Total sales of lottery tickets for state and national games in 2021, accumulated from reports to state authorities.

$53 billion: Total gross gaming revenue for 2021 at the nation’s 466 “commercial” casinos (non-tribal). This figure, provided by the American Gaming Association, is verifiable because the casinos are required by law to provide data to their state’s gaming control commission. This includes legal online gambling, which also is reported to the state regardless of whether a tribal partner is involved.

$39 billion: Total gross gaming revenue for 2021 at the country’s 510 tribal “gaming operations,” aka casinos. This figure, provided by the National Indian Gaming Commission, is “calculated from the independently audited financial statements” of the casinos owned by 243 tribes operating in 29 states, according to the organization.

$5 billion: Total wagering last year at California cardrooms, a figure reported to the state by the California Gaming Association that is not included in commercial or tribal gaming data.

$12.2 billion: Total amount wagered in legal pari-mutuel betting in 2021, according to Equibase, North America racing’s official database. That figure accounts for betting on 33,567 races, Equibase said. By Steve Friess