The approval of online gaming wouldn’t negatively impact land-based casinos, the head of the industry’s largest association says.

Frank Fahrenkopf, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association, said if anything, the approval of Internet gambling would expand existing operations, because younger players more comfortable with online transactions would start gambling online and eventually find their way to local casinos.

“Because we’re talking about Internet poker at this time, I could see how offering it online might hurt a small casino that’s dependent on poker,” he said. “But we’ve spent significant time on is the impact of the Internet on existing operations, and our research concludes that it wouldn’t result in a significant change.”

Fahrenkopf made his remarks in a question-and-answer session following the release Wednesday of the Washington-based organization’s annual “State of the States: The AGA Survey of Casino Entertainment” report on commercial casino operations.

The report says the gaming industry is getting healthier nationwide with gross gaming revenue and tax revenue up at the 492 commercial casinos and 517 card rooms in the United States.

It’s the 14th AGA report comparing key casino data from the 15 states that have commercial casinos, 13 with so-called “racinos” at horse and dog tracks, 29 with tribal casinos and five allowing card rooms.

This year’s report says gross gaming revenue in 2011 was up 3 percent over 2010 to $35.6 billion. In the previous year, revenue increased by less than 1 percent. In 2007 and 2008, revenue declined as a result of the economic downturn.

This year’s edition also includes a survey of elected officials and civic leaders in gaming jurisdictions about the impact of casinos on their communities.

Tax revenue climbed 4.5 percent to $7.93 billion in 2011, and the industry directly employed 339,000 people who earned $12.9 billion in wages, tips and benefits. While the industry touts the number of jobs it provides, the total number of jobs in 2011 was down 0.4 percent from a year ago.

The report provides a comparative snapshot of commercial casinos and indicates that the Las Vegas Strip remains the top U.S. casino market with $6.07 billion in gross gaming revenue.

Three of the top 20 markets are in Nevada with Las Vegas’ Boulder Strip the No. 10 market ($778.9 million in revenue) and Reno-Sparks at No. 14 ($663.3 million).

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