The Effects of Gambling on Society

As gambling becomes more and more prevalent in today's society, one must look at the positive and negative aspects of the construction of casinos and other gambling establishments. While casinos have been shown to benefit local economies by creating jobs and generating tax revenues, they also lead to many social problems such as increased suicide, crime, accident, and high-school drop out rates. For example, in Indiana, a study shows its ten riverboat casinos are to blame for $1 million worth of crime each week. The upside is that it also brought in $763 million in net revenue in one fiscal year (Study: Despite Problems, 2006). The issue of gambling, and specifically the construction of casinos, is important across the nation as casinos are being built in attempts to revive cities and make money. The debate is complex with valid points on both sides, however one must understand each viewpoint in order to form an opinion of their own.

Proponents for casino construction often point to the economic benefits of areas with casinos. The National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (NRC) found that "gambling appears to have net economic benefits for economically depressed communities" and even "a new casino of limited attractiveness, placed in a market that is not already saturated, will yield positive economic benefits on net to its host economy," (Fahrenkopf, 2002, p.111). Statistics have been found by many organizations that support this claim. The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago (NORC) found that "communities closest to casinos experience a 12% to 17% decrease in welfare payments, unemployment rates, and unemployment insurance," (Fahrenkopf, 2002, p.111). Examples of these benefits can be found across America. In Mississippi, the casino industry accounts for 3% of the states workforce and welfare payments have dropped as much as 29% in towns with casinos. In Illinois, tax revenues from 10 Riverboat casinos produced $236 million in 1995 and in Joliet; casinos employ 4,000 people with an annual payroll of $86 million. In Louisiana, the construction of casinos created approximately 10,000 construction jobs and in Shreveport, 20% of Harrah's casino workers purchased a house in 1995, 11% got off welfare, and 18% stopped receiving unemployment payments (Fahrenkopf, 2002, p.110). These facts clearly show that when gaming is introduced into a region, it creates jobs and revenue.

Opponents of gambling admit that certain cities, for example Las Vegas, have prospered greatly due to the gambling industry; however, they also feel that Las Vegas is a poor model to represent the true affects of casinos in an area. Because of Las Vegas' position in the desert, tourists go to Las Vegas and turn the trip into a full-scale holiday. Las Vegas is unique in that people come for a week, stay in a hotel, eat at various restaurants and do a little shopping. In this way Las Vegas' casinos not only make money for themselves, but also make money for the entire city. In comparison Atlantic City is a bus ride away from New York City and about 30 million people live close enough to visit its casinos for a day. In fact, people often make their own sandwiches to bring to the casinos and it's no wonder Atlantic City brings in very few non-gambling dollars (Torr, 2002, p.103).

Towns like Joliet, Illinois and Gary, Indiana are very similar. They have nothing besides the casinos to attract tourists so they count on the locals to gamble away their money. Because the local citizens are spending their money on gambling, these casinos are actually taking away from the amount of money other businesses in the town would ordinarily be making. In Oregon, where the Seven Feathers Hotel and Casino opened, many nearby businesses have never been worse. According to a restaurant owner, his business dropped from $25,000 a month to below $10,000 a month. Three other restaurants have been put out of business in the year and a half the Seven Feathers has been open (Stewart, 2001, p.52). This decrease in revenue and eventual closing of businesses decreases the number of jobs offered by those businesses and also means that those businesses pay proportionately less tax to the local and state governments (Torr, 2002, p.104).

Lastly, in regards to the economic benefits of casinos, opponents say that casinos don't even produce jobs for the city in which the casino is located. In Joliet nearly 60% of the casino's employees live outside the city, and over half live outside the county (Torr, 2002, p.104). Also the statistics that show increase in employment of casinos do not take into account the job creation that would have occurred had the casino not been built.

Along with refuting the economical advantages of casinos, opponents of the gambling industry also claim that casinos are the cause of many social problems. These social costs are extremely hard to put in a dollar amount, but that does not mean we don't feel their effect. Nevada, for example has the highest suicide rate in America. It also has among the highest number of accidents per mile driven, and deplorable crime, and high-school drop out rates in the country. Replication studies show that the more available and accessible gambling is, the higher the number of problem gamblers (Pavalko, 2002, p.56). These problem gamblers have a high propensity to commit crimes, especially forgery, theft, embezzlement, and fraud. The American Insurance Institute estimates that 40% of white-collar crime has its roots in gambling. Before these gamblers even resort to crime, they are often unproductive employees: often absent or late and usually distracted. A 1990 study