These Are Illinois’ (And The Midwest’s) Favorite Drinking Games

I must admit that the sun set on my participation in drinking games many years ago, but from what I understand, even without my involvement, drinking games still remain popular.

When I asked our own Joe Dredge to name a few of his favorite drinking games, I ended up leaving the room after 15 minutes while he continued listing them off.

If you're wondering what made #1 on Joe's list of favorite drinking games, it would be this:

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Before We Get To Illinois' Favorite Drinking Game, Let's Check Out The World's Oldest One

I'm sure you were already shouting "C'mon Rile, everyone knows the world's oldest drinking game is none other than Kottabos!"

Wow. You're amazing. Knowing that shows that you...well...probably have a problem.

For those who don't know about Kottabos, Wikipedia defines it like this:

Kottabos (Ancient Greek: κότταβος) was a game of skill played at Ancient Greek and Etruscan symposia (drinking parties), especially in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. It involved flinging wine-lees (sediment) at a target in the middle of the room. The winner would receive a prize (κοττάβιον or "kottabion"), comprising cakes, sweetmeats, or kisses.

Here's some ancient pottery showing Kottabos.

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And here's how it looked being played:

According To A Study By ShaneCo.Com, Illinois' Favorite Drinking Game Involves Pieces Of Wood Or Playing Cards

ShaneCo.com looked at a lot of drinking games to come up with each state's favorite:

In our study, we used Google Trends search volume to analyze the most popular drinking game in every state between November 2020 and 2021. Nineteen different drinking games were taken into account — from flip cup to king’s cup to drunk Jenga, there are tons of popular drinking games to kick off your party with a blissful, buzzed bang. Just be sure to drink responsibly!

Their numbers show that Illinoisans who are up for a drinking game tend to lean toward a game called "Screw The Dealer," or "Drunk Jenga."

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The rest of the Midwest is into these drinking games:

Wisconsin: Quarters
Iowa: Drunk Jenga
Missouri: Ride The Bus
Minnesota: Ride The Bus
Michigan: Paranoia
Indiana: Quarters
Kentucky: Beer Pong

What Are the Signature Drinks From Every State?

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.