<WRAP = 760><FONTNAME = arial16.dds><FONTSIZE = 16><COLOR = 255,255,255,255>Gambling is big business in the USA, with 2005 earnings reaching $84 Billion. The US has approximately 450 commercial casinos, and a further 254 casinos operate on Indian land, due to special legal provisions.
Lotteries are also popular in the US, with all but 8 states participating.
The largest lottery jackpot to date was $314.9 million, won by a man in West Virginia in 2002. The law regarding taxation of lottery wins varies from country to country. In the US, lottery wins are taxed, but in the European Union, lottery wins are generally tax-free.

Gambling is no less popular in the UK, with 2004 earnings reaching £53.4 Billion. This is partly due to the fairly recent introduction in the UK of the 'national lottery', which remains the most popular form of UK gambling, with 65% of people participating, compared to only 3% gambling in casinos.
The UK Gambling Commission estimates that 72% of the population gamble, and between 0.6 and 0.8% are 'problem gamblers'.
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Big casinos can be very profitable. As an example, the MGM Grand company, which owns a number of major Las Vegas Casinos, has a  turnover of $7Billion (2006), and a gross profit of £2.9 Billion.
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Governments often encourage gambling because of the employment it creates (354,000 jobs in US commercial casinos) and the opportunities to raise taxes. For example, the US state of Nevada charges a 6.75% tax on gaming revenue which took in just over a billion dollars in 2006. In Indiana, the tax rate is higher (from 15-25%) but only takes in $833 million.
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In 2006, the US govt passed legislation that made transactions from US banks to online gambling sites illegal, which had major implications for the online gambling industry, with some of the big players losing 60% of their stock value following estimates that up to 80% of their revenue.





