You’ve heard newsmakers toss around numbers describing how big the online poker industry really is. Its mammoth size is part of the reason that there’s a strong movement in Congress, led by Congressman Barney Frank, to bring licensed internet gambling back to the United States. With billions (with a B) of dollars in potential revenue, the internet gambling industry can fund critical federal programs by itself. This past week, the American Gaming Association published its annual State of the States report, which describes the brick and mortar casino industry in the United States. It’s the 10th production of the 46-page long periodical. PocketFives.com got a sneak peak at the State of the States, a survey of casino entertainment. It includes an in-depth look at poker revenue in the United States. The numbers will shock you.

Poker continues to grow in the United States following Chris Moneymaker’s win in the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event. Consumer spending on poker in Nevada and New Jersey (which includes the gaming metropolises of Las Vegas and Atlantic City) was a balmy $252.2 million in 2007, up from $238.1 million in 2006. In 2005, consumer spending on poker in these two states amounted to $207.2 million. Although the growth from 2006 to 2007 wasn’t as large of an increase as the growth from 2005 to 2006 (5% as compared to 15%), the industry is still expanding.

At the end of 2007, twelve states had commercial casinos within their borders: Nevada, Colorado, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Five states had legalized card rooms: California, Washington, Montana, Minnesota, and Florida. The income derived from card rooms in these states will blow your socks off. Take California, where card room revenue in 2006 was nearly $800 million. There were 91 card rooms throughout the state, meaning each generated nearly $9 million during the 2006 calendar year. In Florida, the state’s 18 card rooms racked up $72.55 million in 2007, an average of $4 million each. Minnesota only has one card room logged in 2007 and it produced a staggering $28.62 million in revenue in 2007.

In total, there were 707 card rooms in five states throughout the country in 2007. Four of those states had combined revenues of $1.18 billion in 2007, which was up a whopping 7.3% from 2006. The only non-rosy piece of news from the State of the States report concerned poker participation among adults. In 2003, 12% of adults reported playing poker at some point during the previous year. That number jumped by half to 18% in 2004 and 2005, before falling to 13% in 2007.

Other interesting stats in the 2008 State of the States report included betting on the NFL’s biggest game, the Super Bowl. For the 2008 Super Bowl, $92.06 million was wagered in Nevada sports books. That’s down from $93.07 million in 2006 and $94.53 million in 2005, but is still up from prior years. However, due to the Giants colossal upset over the then-undefeated New England Patriots, gross revenue from the Super Bowl was actually negative $2.6 million, the only time Nevada sports books have lost money on the Super Bowl from 2001-2008. Thanks, David Tyree.

Total U.S. consumer spending on commercial casino gambling was a ridiculous $34.13 billion in 2007, up from $32.42 billion in 2006. The number has nearly doubled in the last 10 years. Outside Nevada, the state with the largest revenue from casino gambling was Mississippi. Home to Tunica, Mississippi raked in $2.891 billion in 2007. Indiana took in $2.625 billion, fueled in part by casinos in close proximity to Chicago and Louisville. Nationwide at the end of 2007, there were 467 commercial casinos, 41 racetrack casinos, and 424 tribal casinos (95 in Oklahoma alone).

There’s a look at the state of affairs in the poker and casino gambling industries in the United States. For more information, check out www.americangaming.org, the official website of the American Gaming Association. You can download the 2008 State of the States report right on the home page.

Front Page Image: Bellagio Poker Room