National Research on Casinos and Gambling

LEARN FROM OTHERS

8/23/06 - CA Attorney General Report - Gambling in the Golden State, May 2006 - Excerpts from news article: The report by the attorney general's office concludes "the annual cost of adult pathological gamblers in California is an estimated $489 million and the annual cost of adult problem gamblers is an estimated $509 million."

"These costs derive from a number of social and personal problems that correlate with problem gambling, including crime, unpaid debts and bankruptcy, mental illness, substance abuse, unemployment and public assistance," it says.

In addition, crime rates are higher near gambling establishments, and problem gamblers are more likely to commit violent crimes. An alarming number of problem gamblers, nearly half, are youths. (Legislators press ahead, 8/2/3/06) Report: http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/06/04/06-004.pdf

Casinos and Sovereignty - In some states, only Indian tribes are allowed to own casinos. For those states, the issue of sovereignty is a major consideration. A presentation before the American Bar Association in March 2005 outlines the legal cases which refute the inflated claims of "sovereignty" used by many casino tribes when trying to gain competitive advantages over other local businesses. "As Indian enterprises like casinos grow and enter interestate commerce in ways indistinguishable from non-Indian competitors, Federal laws, including labor and employment laws, will be asserted." "Indian tribes have some attributes of sovereignty, but these are frequently misunderstood and overstated." "These cases manifest the recognition that as Indian tribes increasingly engage in business activities in commerce with people and business organizations from outside their reservations, there is no sound reason to treat them differently than non-Indian businesses." The National Labor Relations Board "explicityly rejected the contention that Indian-owned enterprises are 'government' operations and therefore exempt." (San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino, Richard G. McCracken, 2005)

Study: Casino and hotel impact on town of 1,050 people could be $13.4 million. A nine-month study of a casino's potential impacts on Plymouth's infrastructure came to a rough end number last Thursday when a consultant said the toll on the city of 1,050 people could run as high as $13.4 million. (12/14/05)

Gambling and Crime among Arrestees: Exploring the Link Is there a connection between problem gambling and crime? Do compulsive or pathological gamblers resort to criminal activity to pay their debts and finance their bets? Using the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) Program as a survey vehicle, researchers found significantly more problem gambling among arrestees than in the general population. The arrestees who were interviewed had high levels of criminal activity related to pathological gambling. The percentage of problem or pathological gamblers among the arrestees was three to five times higher than in the general population. Nearly one-third of arrestees identified as pathological gamblers admitted having committed robbery in the previous year. Approximately 13 percent had assaulted someone for money. Pathological gamblers were much more likely to have sold drugs than other arrestees. U.S. Deptartment of Justice, 2004. ; Pathological Gambling in Arrestee Populations, Richard C. McCorkle, Ph.D., 2002 (National Criminal Justice Reference Service, US Dept. of Justice)

All Gambling All the Time- Turning the Empire State into the Gambling State "This report has revealed the dark side of gambling: the "silent" addiction of problem gambling; political corruption; crime; suicide; and hidden economic costs. This is the side that the gambling interests don't want anyone to see. Theirs is the lie that soft-pedals gambling as "gaming"; it is the false promise of economic salvation; and it is the glib dismissal of people who are suffering as a direct consequence of state action." A Legislative Report by Senator Frank Padavan, April, 2004

Newsbrief: Construction Law "A casino project on Indian Land is different form (and more risky than) other tpes of public and private projects because, all other things being equal, a contractor generally has fewer rem4edies to collect payment on an Indian casino project. There are two primary reasons for this lack of meaningful remedies. First, federally recognized Indian Tribes are generally immune from lawsuits in both federal and state courts for civil matters. Second, the land upon which the project is built may be owned in such a manner that a contractor may not be able to successfully enforce a lien upon it." (3/5/04)

Impact of Casino Gambling on Bankruptcy Rates: A County Level Analysis
Results from applying regression analysis to U.S. bankruptcy data for 1990 and 1999 indicate that counties that legalized casinos during the period suffered individual bankruptcy rates more than 100 percent higher than counties that remained “casino-less.” (03/12/04)

Gambling Expansion Big Loser in 2003
The truth was, and is, that gambling contains the seeds of its own destruction. States, like individuals, cannot gamble themselves rich. But they can, and have, gambled themselves poor, as demonstrated by Nevada's $870 million budget deficit in 2003. (01/10/04)

Problem Gambling
One of four people whose gambling included VLTs were at-risk or problem gamblers, confirming the much-reported notion that VLTs are the "crack cocaine" of gambling. Those who bought only lottery tickets had the lowest chance of becoming problem gamblers. (12/12/03)

Impact of IGRA on Gambling in the U.S. -
Because the casino and associated facilities are located on tribal trust land, which is exempt from state and local regulation and taxation, communities cannot control caisno development and its impacts, or rely upon taxation to raise revenue to cover the cost of any response to impacts. The result is a potential worst-case scenario for local governments - unrestricted growth that occurs beyond regulatory control, but has massive impacts on the very fabric of the community. International Municipal Lawyers' Association (10/13/03)

Tribal Casinos - and their impacts on a California Community
Tribal casinos impact state and local public services-increasing the costs and potentially lowering the quality of service. Negative impacts include greater law enforcement and fire protection needs, traffic mitigation and road maintenance, water and sewage extension and maintenance, augmented social services (including family health care and affordable housing), open space conservation and the added cost to infrastructure extension. (2003)

NPR Interview with Time Magazine Reporters Barlett and Steele
So the picture that you're painting is that some of the casinos are run by tribes that are almost tribes in name only because they represent so few people, and that the profits go to very few people. Instead of benefiting a large number of Native Americans, they go to this very small tribe and they go to the backers and the investors of this casino. (12/16/02)

Special Report - Indian Casinos
Look Who's Cashing In At Indian Casinos - Hint: It's not the people who are supposed to benefit. Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Time Magazine (12/00/02)

Casinos More Often Lead to Losses than to Economic Development
Although many officials have promoted casinos as a means to support lasting economic development, Earl Grinols of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and David Mustard of the University of Georgia concluded the opposite. They found that the costs outstripped the gains almost twofold—an imbalance that amounts to a national loss of at least $27.5 billion each year. Scientific American (10/03/01)

National Gambling Impact Study Commission - Final Report (6/18/99)

When Gambling Comes to Town
The bottom line. In general, gambling needs to be covered like other economic development proposals -- glitz and hype notwithstanding. Journalists should not forget that they may be the only ones able to cast a skeptical eye on plans to expand legalized gambling in their community. Columbia Journalism Review - (January/February 1994)