Supporters of a proposed bill that would allow three massive destination casino resorts in South Florida often argue that gambling is already big business here.

“Florida is considered the fourth-largest gambling state in the nation, but it has let the industry drive policy decisions and that has produced the worst kind of gaming,’’ Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, said in an interview about her casinos bill. “To me, no kind of gaming is good, but we as policymakers have to decide, do we want gaming with five-star hotels or Internet cafes in strip malls?”

The fourth-largest ranking claim has been repeated by many people. But is it accurate?

Bogdanoff’s source is an Oct. 24 report by Bernstein Research, a leading watcher of gambling stocks.

“Florida has more gaming options than Las Vegas,” the report states. “There is currently $3.4B of gaming occurring in Florida or $7.4B if one includes the lottery. . . . There are 8 casinos in the state run by Native Americans. Seven of these are Seminole and one is Miccosukee. These casinos generated revenues of just over $2B in 2009, making Florida the fourth-largest state for tribal gaming. . . .”

We’ll note straight off that the Bernstein report is discussing tribal gaming not gaming overall, a distinction not made by Bogdanoff.

“She misspoke,” said Aaron Nevins, Bogdanoff’s legislative assistant. “Florida is the fourth-largest state for tribal gaming.”

Setting aside that mistake, we started looking for other measures.

Nevins directed us to a report about states’ gambling revenues in fiscal year 2010 by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, a group that describes itself as the public policy research arm of the State University of New York.

According to the Rockefeller report, 43 states operate lotteries, 15 allow commercial casinos, 12 have racinos, and over 40 states allow pari-mutuel wagering. Lotteries and casinos generate the bulk of gambling-related revenues.

In Florida, revenues totaled about $1.4 billion — ranking the state third behind New York and Pennsylvania.

How could Florida be ahead of Nevada, which had $829.3 million in revenues, placing at No. 12? Rockefeller looked at gambling revenues from four sources — lotteries, casinos, racinos and pari-mutuel wagering. Nevada only has one category (casinos) while Florida has the lottery, racinos (race tracks with slot machines) and pari-mutuel wagering.

But let’s take a look at a few other charts in the Rockefeller report that examine states’ gambling rankings in various ways:

States’ reliance on gambling revenues: In fiscal year 2009, Florida was 15th at 3.3 percent. Nevada — at 12.5 percent — had the highest percentage of gambling revenue as a share of the state’s own-source revenue.

States’ share of nationwide gambling revenues: Florida was third at 5.8 percent behind New York and Pennsylvania for fiscal year 2010.

Gambling revenue per resident 18 & above: Florida was 21st at $94.4. Rhode Island was No. 1.

Gambling revenue as a percentage of personal income: Florida was 19th at 0.2 percent. West Virginia was No. 1.

So each measure of gambling can result in a different state being the top, second or fourth.