Gambling is found all over the world, with people typically thinking of the world’s major hubs for gambling, such as Las Vegas in the United States. Places like Las Vegas have become synonymous with the world’s leading areas for gambling, but the US is not actually ranked as the top gambling nation. Most of the top gambling nations are the ones that most people might not expect to even see on a list and could take you by surprise.
What are some of the biggest gambling nations in the world?
It might shock some of our readers that some of the biggest gambling nations in the world might not be the biggest or most populated countries in the world, and so they might not be the ones you think of first.
Finland
Seeing Finland on this list of the biggest gambling nations in the world might come as a surprise to some readers, but it has been reported by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health that over 40% of eligible adults in the country will engage in some form of gambling on a weekly basis. In 2011, the government in Finland increased the minimum gambling age for its residents to 18.
Prior to this change, the gambling age used to be 15. This was done as a way to dissuade children from partaking in gambling activities. Like most other nations, Finland offers a national lottery on a regular basis, and a lot of people in the country enjoy taking part. The national lottery belongs to the Finnish government and is overseen by the Ministry of Education. As it is a government-run initiative, any profits made from the national lottery are directly fed back into the country through culture, education, and the arts.
Singapore
Singapore has had a fairly recent blossoming in the gambling industry, where only in 2010 did their first casino open its doors. Since then, Singapore has become one of the biggest and most profound nations in the world for gambling.
However, over fears that the gambling industry and casinos have started to create problems such as significant personal losses and even addiction, the government has started to discourage the public from engaging in these activities. The government has since imposed an $81 entry fee for any local that wants to play at a casino, quite a hefty sum of money just to get the chance to gamble.
Ireland
The state of the gambling industry in Ireland is one of slight confusion, where the majority of casinos go unregulated due to old and outdated legislation under the Gaming and Lottery Act of 1956. This act restricted certain games and how they are played, and it required clubs to be fully registered in order to offer any sort of casino games and services.
This meant that placing bets on machines were limited to six pence and the payouts could not go beyond ten shillings. However, this has since been rendered null as the Irish pound is no longer accepted as legal tender due to the switch in currencies over 20 years ago in 1999. The Irish government has quite rightly started to enact new laws and introduce updated legislation to once again regulate the gambling industry in Ireland, with regulation being welcomed by the wider community to ensure safety and security for players.
Australia
There is a long history of gambling in Australia, where most players enjoy both casino games as well as sports betting. Australia has started to accept sports betting via online outlets and there are plenty of online casinos to choose from as well. One of the biggest and most popular machines in Australia is the slot machine. It is reported that areas such as New South Wales account for around half of the nation’s poker machines.
Canada
Canada has quite a prominent cohort of regular players across an entire litany of games and ways of gambling. It is reported that around 75% of Canadians who are eligible have participated in some kind of gambling at some point in their lives.
Saskatchewan is one the most popular Canadian provinces for gambling activities, where players bring in average revenue streams per eligible person of just over $840. Most of the top gambling activities and games in Canada are in keeping with most other countries, where scratch cards and the lottery are the main ways for people to play.
Where does India come in?
India houses one of the largest populations in the world, although, as has already been shown by our list, the number of people within a country does not necessarily mean more people will end up participating in gambling activities. India does, however, feature quite a large population of individuals who enjoy gambling and actively participate in various forms, whether it be land-based or at online casino sites. At this point, only a small handful of states in India permit legal gambling, including Sikkim, Daman, and Goa.
Most of the restrictions on gambling in India are managed by individual states, and most states do not permit any form of gambling. The central government has outlawed gambling activities. Betting on sporting events and taking part in online casino games such as poker is not legal, but each state has different approaches and policies when it comes to it, meaning gambling is only accessible in certain areas.
There have been plenty of calls for the central government to introduce central regulation and laws on gambling so that things become universal across the country. Although gambling is illegal in the majority of the country, some citizens still take part in fairly regular gambling. This lack of central regulation surely means a severe lack of proper safety and security measures for those actively taking part in these games, and, introducing stern laws and proper regulation, can help the country move forward.
