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Notes -
I don't know if that's necessarily the case. In Pennsylvania, at least, the social acceptability of gambling far preceded it's legality. In the early 2000s the campaign to legalize gambling was largely predicated on the fact that the casinos in West Virginia were full of PA residents, as evidenced by the number of PA plates in the parking lots. From there it was a long, gradual slide as states tried to outdo each other. First it was going to be limited to slots but WV legalized table games ahead of PA's approval so PA had to go ahead and add table games. They were supposed to limit licenses to one per region (with special rules for racetracks) to prevent it from becoming like WV where there are "hotspots" all over the place. Then these rules were gradually relaxed to allow more smaller casinos, and small game of chance licenses for bars. It's still not as bad as WV, but with online gaming and the emergence of sports books it's hard to tell PA from any other state that allows gambling and isn't Nevada.
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