Las Vegas
Casinos in the United States make up 1% of the country's gross domestic product according to research conducted by the American Gaming Association.
The figures, which were collected from 2010, showed that the 566 casinos in 22 states across America accounted for $125 billion of spending as well as more than 800,000 jobs.
The $125 billion generated by land based casinos is around the 1% mark of the countries entire GDP – which stood at $14.5 trillion in 2010.
The report which the figures appeared in is titled 'Beyond the Casino Floor: Economic Impacts of the Commercial Casino Industry' and is the most thorough examination of the US casino industry to date.
Speaking about the reports, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association Frank Fahrenkopf Jr explained the importance of the casino industry to the US.
He added: "The industry generates and supports economic activity that stretches far beyond the communities that host casinos and into the greater American economy."
This reach into the community spoken about by Fahrenkopf could extend even further should online gambling be legalised. US online casinos and poker has been a hot topic in the past couple of years but the future now appears much brighter for US online casino players.
Now that the Department of Justice has deemed that online poker and casinos are not illegal under Federal law, states are free to pass their own legislation to allow legal US online casinos.
The primary reason for this is to raise badly needed funds and a potential increase to GDP as well as extra provision of jobs is sure to be a major attraction for politicians.
