In a surprising twist of expectations, Pennsylvania is the “greediest” state in the United States of America, while Texas is the least. This shocking proclamation was made by Online Casino Suomi (OCS) after it compiled the results of a study it performed in all 50 states.
“This data is eye-opening because it tells us how people really think about gambling. It’s not just about laws, it’s about culture, habits, and personal values,” says Tomi Huttunen, CEO of OCS.
Finding Out Who’s Greedy and Who’s Not
OCS is a website dedicated to helping Finnish players find the best casinos online in Finland. Suomi is the Finnish word for the country—the online resource rates casinos, selecting those with the highest standards to recommend. OCS regularly collects data and meticulously vets casinos to guarantee customer satisfaction.
Therefore, when the company decided to do a state-by-state study to determine gambling habits in the United States, it knew exactly what to look for to determine which of the 50 states is the most “money-hungry.”
To discover how the different states rate regarding money, secrecy, and gambling habits, OCS evaluated the self-reported responses of over 3,000 respondents. The participants were divided equally among the states and answered questions about their behavior. The responses were then scored on a “money-hungry” index.
Included on the index were whether or not someone hides winnings from a partner, buys lottery tickets regularly, travels to another state to gamble, admits to breaking or bending casino rules, and is willing to bet their last $10. Each behavior was graded differently. Cheating at a casino was scored higher than buying a lottery ticket in the final tally for each participant. All the respondents from each state contributed to the final ranking for that particular state.
When the final list was compiled, Pennsylvania came out on top.
The States Most and Least Driven by Money
Pennsylvania is number one on the list, while Delaware, South Dakota, California, and Virginia are the top five.
Pennsylvania ranked top due to the number of participants who said they frequently bought lottery tickets and were willing to risk their last $10 on a chance to win big at gambling. Pennsylvania also ranked very high with people willing to hide their big lottery win from their partner.
The state of Delaware came in second because participants said they would hide their gambling wins. Even though the state is geographically smaller than most, its residents appear to dream big, but in secret.
In third place is South Dakota. This state scored high due to its residents’ willingness to bet their last $10. This state also scored very high with people willing to “bend” the rules at a casino.
Like South Dakota, fourth-place California participants admitted to attempting to cheat at the casino. They also scored high for keeping their gambling wins secret.
Virginia took the last spot in the top five because Virginians would travel to another state to visit a casino. They were also fine with betting their last $10 in a casino.
Meanwhile, Texas came in dead last of all the states due to its participants scoring low in every category.
For the Pursuit of Money
“There’s a strong cultural aspect at play here. States where gambling is more normalized tend to have higher ‘money-hungry’ scores. But in some places, people are just more naturally risk-tolerant than others,” concludes Huttunen.
