--- title: This State Has the Worst Gambling Addiction description: All 50 states ranked by gambling addiction authors: - name: Ethan Wolff-Mann url: https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 160 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/ewolffmann former_staff: true published: '2016-05-09T15:19:36.000Z' modified: '2016-05-09T15:19:36.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - gambling - pubdesk word_count: 415 canonical: https://money.com/gambling-addiction-worst-states/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Group playing the tables at a casino, one man wearing Elvis style sunglasses, Las Vegas, USA, 2000s](https://img.money.com/2016/05/gettyimages-558220291.jpg) *Group playing the tables at a casino, one man wearing Elvis style sunglasses, Las Vegas, USA, 2000s.* Whenever legalizing gambling is discussed, it becomes a seriously contentious issue, for obvious reasons—fun and games can quickly spiral out of control into addiction. Gambling may not be legal in many states, but its addiction is a fairly sizable and expensive problem that affects over 2% of the population and had a total social cost of $7 billion in 2013, according to the [National Council on Problem Gambling](http://www.ncpgambling.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/NCPG-Comments-on-SAMHSA-Leading-Change-2.0-Advancing-the-Behavioral-Health-of-the-Nation-2015-2018.pdf). Certain states, however, have it worse than others. According to [a recent WalletHub analysis](https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-addicted-to-gambling/20846/#methodology) -- which compared 13 metrics that compared "gambling friendliness" with "gambling problem and treatment" -- Nevada, home to Las Vegas, was in fact the worst state in the union for gambling addiction. It was the second most gambling-friendly place and ranked number 12 for gambling problems. Here is WalletHub's full ranking of all 50 states. Source: [WalletHub](https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-addicted-to-gambling/20846/) | **Overall Rank (1 = Most Addicted)** | **State** | **Total Score** | **‘Gambling-Friendliness’ Rank** | **‘Gambling Problem & Treatment’ Rank** | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 1 | Nevada | 57.00 | 2 | 12 | | 2 | South Dakota | 56.62 | 1 | 28 | | 3 | Mississippi | 48.94 | 13 | 1 | | 4 | Montana | 48.75 | 3 | 38 | | 5 | Oklahoma | 46.70 | 4 | 31 | | 6 | West Virginia | 45.15 | 7 | 11 | | 7 | New Jersey | 44.66 | 9 | 10 | | 8 | Oregon | 43.86 | 5 | 38 | | 9 | Delaware | 40.84 | 6 | 36 | | 10 | North Dakota | 38.96 | 8 | 37 | | 11 | Louisiana | 37.76 | 12 | 14 | | 12 | Idaho | 37.51 | 11 | 19 | | 13 | Maryland | 36.56 | 24 | 5 | | 14 | Tennessee | 36.48 | 25 | 4 | | 15 | Wyoming | 34.67 | 16 | 18 | | 16 | Rhode Island | 34.63 | 15 | 23 | | 17 | Ohio | 33.08 | 17 | 25 | | 18 | South Carolina | 32.88 | 28 | 7 | | 19 | Colorado | 32.23 | 14 | 34 | | 20 | Connecticut | 31.69 | 19 | 27 | | 21 | Illinois | 31.24 | 41 | 3 | | 22 | New Mexico | 31.21 | 10 | 49 | | 23 | Virginia | 31.13 | 20 | 29 | | 24 | Pennsylvania | 30.98 | 21 | 30 | | 25 | Massachusetts | 30.98 | 18 | 32 | | 26 | New Hampshire | 30.88 | 30 | 9 | | 27 | Hawaii | 30.55 | 49 | 2 | | 28 | California | 28.84 | 22 | 33 | | 29 | Missouri | 27.93 | 44 | 6 | | 30 | Georgia | 27.16 | 33 | 15 | | 31 | Arkansas | 26.91 | 32 | 17 | | 32 | Minnesota | 26.80 | 36 | 13 | | 33 | New York | 26.76 | 23 | 46 | | 34 | Iowa | 26.03 | 26 | 42 | | 35 | Michigan | 25.53 | 27 | 41 | | 36 | Texas | 25.05 | 47 | 8 | | 37 | Vermont | 23.07 | 40 | 19 | | 38 | Washington | 22.45 | 34 | 43 | | 39 | Maine | 22.19 | 43 | 24 | | 40 | Florida | 22.00 | 35 | 44 | | 41 | North Carolina | 21.55 | 46 | 16 | | 42 | Alaska | 20.92 | 45 | 19 | | 43 | Kentucky | 20.63 | 31 | 48 | | 44 | Wisconsin | 20.32 | 39 | 35 | | 45 | Indiana | 19.59 | 29 | 50 | | 46 | Kansas | 19.40 | 38 | 45 | | 47 | Arizona | 19.16 | 37 | 47 | | 48 | Alabama | 19.13 | 42 | 38 | | 49 | Nebraska | 18.60 | 48 | 26 | | 50 | Utah | 18.18 | 49 | 19 | ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/gambling-addiction-worst-states/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Mental Health", "item": "https://money.com/mental-health/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "This State Has the Worst Gambling Addiction" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/gambling-addiction-worst-states/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/gambling-addiction-worst-states/", "name": "This State Has the Worst Gambling Addiction", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-05-09T15:19:36.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/gambling-addiction-worst-states/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/gambling-addiction-worst-states/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-05-09T15:19:36.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "This State Has the Worst Gambling Addiction", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/05/gettyimages-558220291.jpg", "width": 5648, "height": 3720, "caption": "Group playing the tables at a casino, one man wearing Elvis style sunglasses, Las Vegas, USA, 2000s" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ethan Wolff-Mann", "url": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/ewolffmann" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-05-09T15:19:36.000Z", "description": "All 50 states ranked by gambling addiction", "abstract": "All 50 states ranked by gambling addiction", "@id": "https://money.com/gambling-addiction-worst-states/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-05-09T15:19:36.000Z", "wordCount": 415, "keywords": [ "gambling", "pubdesk" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Mental health", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_health" ] } ] } ] } ```