With the arrival of social casino games, no longer must you drive to the local casino to try your luck at hitting 21 or rolling craps. It’s as easy as going on the Internet to gamble, and the numbers now show that the market for social casino games is growing exponentially.

A study from research firm SuperData found that the worldwide market has doubled in just one year to $1.6 billion and that social casino gambling accounts for almost a quarter of total social gaming revenue.

North America accounted for $659.8 million of the worldwide social casino revenue, far exceeding second-place Europe ($446 million) and third-place Asia ($311 million). SuperData found that there are 35.4 million monthly social casino players in the U.S.

VentureBeat reports that the study also showed that the average social casino gamer spent $78 in July, which was 1.8 times more than the average social gamer.

This is good news for land-based casino operators looking to enter the online gaming industry, as well as social game publishers.

The social casino games arena has been a hot area in Seattle, with PopCap Games rolling out its own products and Double Down Interactive being sold for up to $500 million to IGT earlier this year.

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