Commercial casinos in the U.S. have made it almost all the way back from the hard times of the Great Recession.

Atlantic City casino
Spencer Platt, Getty Images
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The American Gaming Association says revenue at non-Indian casinos hit $37.3 billion last year, just under the all-time high reached in 2007.

The biggest gains came in Kansas, Maryland, Maine and New York, each of which opened new casinos in 2012.

New Jersey saw the biggest decline, down 8 percent from 2011. Employment at the casinos was down less than 1 percent, to 322,000 jobs.

There were 513 commercial casinos last year, 21 more than a year earlier.

The report does not include Indian casinos, which won $26 billion from gamblers in 2011, the most recent year for which figures are available.

 

(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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