Stoyan Todorov October 22, 2024 3 min read

BetMGM Touts Poker as Most Searched-For Online Casino Game

Despite the relative humdrumness of the poker vertical in the United States compared to iGaming and sports gambling, “poker” might indeed be the most searched-for casino game

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This is the stipulation by a new brief report by BetMGM which used Google Trend data for the period between January 1 and October 9, 2024, to get a better read of what the most searched-for casino game was.

Casino Poker Leads the Way in Searches in New Report

“Poker” was a surprising outcome, with the betting and gaming giant providing a graphic for each state in the United States with poker dominating the searches in the observed period. Slots were surprisingly non-dominant, with only nine jurisdictions in the country seeing slots as the most searched-for term.

Slot machines, though, were easily the second most searched-for game in the United States, followed by blackjack, roulette and bingo, taking the next places. A full breakdown of the search terms by state is available here:

Region	Slots	Poker	Roulette	Blackjack
Nevada	29%	44%	10%	17%
Mississippi	48%	35%	7%	10%
Arkansas	48%	35%	7%	10%
Oklahoma	46%	36%	8%	10%
Oregon	42%	39%	10%	9%
Alabama	48%	36%	7%	9%
Kansas	40%	40%	9%	11%
North Dakota	37%	39%	8%	16%
Louisiana	44%	36%	9%	11%
New York	38%	40%	11%	11%
Missouri	39%	42%	8%	11%
Wyoming	40%	42%	8%	11%
Arizona	34%	42%	10%	14%
Indiana	36%	46%	8%	10%
Washington DC	40%	38%	11%	11%
Minnesota	36%	45%	7%	12%
New Mexico	41%	36%	11%	12%
Wisconsin	36%	46%	7%	11%
Iowa	36%	44%	9%	11%
Kentucky	40%	41%	9%	10%
California	33%	43%	11%	13%
Illinois	34%	45%	10%	11%
Ohio	35%	44%	9%	12%
Virginia	36%	40%	12%	12%
Pennsylvania	34%	42%	11%	13%
Washington	33%	46%	10%	11%
Texas	33%	43%	12%	12%
South Dakota	29%	48%	9%	14%
West Virginia	36%	41%	11%	12%
Michigan	31%	44%	10%	15%
Tennessee	34%	46%	10%	10%
Georgia	33%	44%	11%	12%
Colorado	26%	49%	9%	16%
Alaska	30%	47%	11%	12%
Florida	29%	48%	11%	12%
Delaware	30%	45%	11%	14%
Nebraska	26%	52%	9%	13%
New Jersey	26%	47%	12%	15%
Rhode Island	25%	50%	11%	14%
Connecticut	25%	51%	10%	14%
Utah	27%	49%	11%	13%
Hawaii	30%	44%	11%	15%
New Hampshire	26%	49%	10%	15%
Maine	31%	45%	10%	14%
Montana	28%	50%	9%	13%
North Carolina	29%	47%	11%	13%
Idaho	28%	48%	11%	13%
Massachusetts	23%	52%	10%	15%
South Carolina	29%	50%	10%	11%
Maryland	27%	49%	11%	13%
Vermont	23%	57%	8%	12%

Commenting on these findings, BetMGM Senior Manager of Poker Marketing offered the following insight: “Poker is a part of US culture. From watching on TV to playing in home games, many people learn the game socially and, as the data shows, are searching for poker online. With the expansion of regulated online poker, BetMGM continues to offer another avenue to enjoy their favorite game.”

The data offers a good idea about changing consumer habits and partially explains why rivals, such as DraftKings, have recently launched their own dedicated player-versus-player poker solution as part of their casino portfolio.

While the non-casino poker vertical has mostly huffed and puffed, struggling to elicit sufficient interest to justify more rapid expansion, it seems that the online casino poker sector has been doing very well all the same.

The District of Columbia interestingly saw bingo as its most searched-for bingo, and Nevada saw players search the most for poker, roulette, and blackjack, BetMGM’s report shared via an email revealed.

Casino Poker Trumps Regular Poker Gameplay

The report also suggested that states such as Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Alabama, and Louisiana saw many searches for slot games, with the accompanying analysis suggesting that the presence of land-based casinos has incentivized people to look for slots online as well.

However, this would still fail to explain why other states, which are equally loaded with land-based casinos, have poker as a more popular searched-for term based on the Google Trend data over the surveyed period.

Earlier this month, BetMGM reported that it continues to reap strong benefits from the sports betting and iGaming market. BetMGM runs its fully-fledged poker solution in both Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, and West Virginia.

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Stoyan Todorov

Co-editor

Stoyan holds over 9 years of esports and gambling writing experience under his belt and is specifically knowledgeable about developments within the online scene. He is a great asset to the Gambling News team with his niche expertise and continual focus on providing our readers with articles that have a unique spin which differentiates us from the rest.

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