Wedge News launches Wedge Index for US gaming states

New rating system tracks consumer gaming accessibility for all states

Wedge News is delighted to announce the launch of Wedge Index, a new rating system of gaming accessibility for each US state based on the regulated gambling options available to consumers.

The Wedge Index has been devised by Wedge News and will be used to keep a running score of the changes affecting every state across the US when it comes to gaming.

The Wedge Index score is calculated according to a large number of criteria including whether a state has land-based casinos, sports-betting, online gaming and other factors such as the number and quality of brands operational in the state.

“We think this adds some further context to the ongoing debates in the US around sports-betting and online gaming,” says Wedge News founder and chief executive David Copeland.

“By according scores for each factor that makes up the Index, we can make a good approximation of the relative gaming friendliness of each state and also look at how forthcoming changes will affect that.”

As it stands, New Jersey tops the Wedge Index list with a current score of 116 followed by Pennsylvania and Colorado.

The Wedge Index top 10 gaming accessible states and points totals at launch

• New Jersey – 116 points

• Pennsylvania – 86 points

• Colorado – 67 points

• Indiana – 64 points

• West Virginia – 60 points

• Illinois – 55 points

• Nevada – 41 points

• Oregon – 39 points

• Iowa – 35 points

• New Hampshire – 34 points

“New Jersey is number one for a reason,” says Copeland. “As well as being the first to market with sports-betting and also with online casino, it has blazed a trail which other states are now following.”

Copeland added that Wedge News will be publishing stories about movements in the index every day.

“This is such a fast-moving space that there are pieces of news which could potentially affect the Wedge Index every day,” he said. “We will be assessing what future legislation might mean, what it means when a new entrant enters any given state and what the broader issues around US gaming and sports-betting might mean for individual markets.”

Copeland said he wants the Index to become the go-to measure for consumer-gaming friendliness

“Instead of just guessing, it means that our readers will be able to assess just how much a state is open to what forms of gaming and how that compares with other states. We also hope that it will help legislators looking at future liberalisation understand what the measures might mean when it comes further broadening the gaming and betting footprint within a state.”

Wedge News was founded by David Copeland in 2020