Which Country Has The Highest Percentage Of Gamblers? The Answer Will Surprise You!

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When discussing countries with the highest gambling rate - it’s essential to look at it from two different angles. Firstly, which country has the highest number of individual gamblers? Secondly, the more accurate representation is the number of gamblers as per a percentage of the overall population. The latter will drive most of our discussion in today’s piece. Some of these statistics might surprise you, and there’s a cluster of countries with a much higher percentage per population than you may initially suspect.

Gambling Across Africa & Middle East

If we address each continent as its own league table, you can begin to paint a picture of the sort of factors that drive a lot of activity. There’d likely be a considerable market in Egypt, given that it’s Africa’s largest economy—but they have prohibited gambling. South Africa is the third largest economy in Africa and also hosts the highest number of gamblers and money wagered on online casino gaming and sports betting. However, they don’t even make it into the top 15 globally. Due to cultural and societal attitudes, gambling in the Middle East operates across an extremely broad scale. In Egypt, for instance, gambling is prohibited - Lebanon is one of the few countries where gambling is legal - right across the whole continent. Sports betting and casino gaming is big business, so there are many companies within the betting industry aiming to rise to the top. The top online betting sites must have a range of top criteria, ranging from a wide selection of table games and sports to bet on - and seamless gambling apps. Experts analyse the top online betting sites in the UAE as having the potential to surpass Lebanon and other similar-sized nations. With sports betting and casino gaming both multi-billion dollar businesses on their own, the potential is huge for those in the betting industry who can get it right.

Expert View

Kate Richardson stated, “Gambling in these regions of the world is an untapped marketplace. It wasn’t until ten years ago that we witnessed the US perform a U-turn on historical, notorious anti-gambling legislation—so who knows which countries could buck the trend and become the next big area to allow online casino gaming for its citizens en masse?”

What Country Gambles The Most?

If we’re crunching the basics, the United States is the biggest gambling market in the world. However, as the world’s only superpower, it simply reflects the strength of its currency and its newly found love for online casino gaming. It’s also had specialist gambling areas like Atlantic City and Las Vegas set up for decades, which attract bettors from all over the US. In terms of per head of population, the US is much lower down the pecking order. The rest of the top 4 biggest gambling countries are: China (Macau - pictured below) - “The gambling capital of the world” - The BBC

Japan
Italy
United Kingdom

The combination of wealth and economic strength drives much of this volume, which is primarily down to more disposable income and purchasing power for the respective currencies used in each nation. Macau sees an enormous influx of cash; per capita, it dominates the global gambling charts. Germany, France, Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden all narrowly miss out - with Europe undeniably the biggest individual continent for gamblers.

So, while China isn’t one of the countries where gambling is legal, Macau, similar to Monte Carlo in Monaco, is a specialist gambling jurisdiction which brings all the gamblers into one specialist area. However, only one of the countries we’ve mentioned in this section makes it into the top 5 with the highest gambling rate—can you guess which one?

Highest Gambling Rates - The Top 5

#5 - Finland - Maybe it’s the combination of high-living standards, good wages and a relatively sparse population - but Finland has the fifth highest gambling rate in the world.
#4 - Canada - Again, a sparsely populated country with high earnings per capita and a well regulated sports betting and casino industry - far surpassing their neighbours to the south.
#3 - Ireland - The luck of the Irish - well, they’ve got the third highest gambling rate anyway! Ireland is the home to some of the top global casinos, with many companies setting up their, as well as other countries like Malta. Irish is one of the most prominent slot themes, too, so it’s no surprise they’re so high up.
#2 - Australia - Australian sporting culture, pokies, and regulated casino gaming have propelled the Land Down Under as one of the best countries for gambling. They actually win and lose more than any other nation per capita, eclipsing their neighbours, New Zealand. However, as a percentage of the population that gamble they’re still behind the country that has over 70% of its adult population identifying as gamblers.
#1 - Singapore - That’s right, over three quarters of Singaporeans of gambling age play some version of casino games. It’s a staggering statistic. The UK - in fifth, is around 44% - just for some context. Evidenced by an iconic $5.5 billion casino. Singapore's $5.5 Billion Dollar Casino

Summary

The percentage of gamblers within any population group is the best measuring tool to use. If you go from money gambled, or the number only, then the countries with the bigger economies and populations naturally rise to the top. As you can see by our top five, there’s a number of countries with huge gambling rates - three of which have populations of less than 6 million. So there’s a lot of societal and economic considerations as well.