Nearly half of social casino players in the US spend real money on their pretend games, according to a new study.

Market researchers Newzoo’s latest survey of US social gamers found that 46% of social casino players had dug into their non-virtual wallets to play games in the past six months. Zynga’s Hit It Rich! Slots title ranked highest in the share of gamers who were willing to dig deep to keep playing.

In age and gender terms, men accounted for 59% of the monetized social casino market. One-third of males between the ages of 21 and 35 years were found to be social casino spenders, compared to 22% of females in the same age bracket. Males aged 36 to 50 ranked third at 20%, followed by 16% of females in the same bracket, while males and females aged 10 to 20 years scored just 6% and 3% respectively.

Social casino gamers patronize an average of 5.6 different franchises and Infiapps’ Slot Bonanza was deemed the most engaging social casino title. In terms of time spent playing a single social casino franchise, 2.5 hours per week was the average of the 17 franchises studied. Some 25% of players dedicated two to five hours per week to a single title, while 21% played less than one hour and just 5% reported playing a single title for 15 hours or more.