This report, by The Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission, estimates the cost of problem gambling to be as high as $2.8 billion in Victoria, Australia. Excess gambling by problem gamblers accounts for up to $1.4 billion of this, with the rest coming from the intangible costs for problem gamblers’ mental health and familial stability. This article by The Age summarizes the report’s findings.
2013 Cost of problem gambling could be as high as $2.8b- report
According to this article by NorthJersey.com, Atlantic City may have to take on an additional tax burden after casinos in the city won a large property tax reduction in court. The reduction is due to declining property values of casinos because of the casino industry’s overall downward spiral in recent years. The city will now have to cope with the loss of serious tax revenue in addition to its long-term financial struggles.
This Journal Record article outlines the argument behind the opposition to the Oklahoma lottery, especially in light of its failure to live up to promises in the past decade. This piece gives an interesting look into the debate over lotteries and shows another example of the failure of government’s experiment with gambling.
This article by The Hartford Courant, written in response to a taxpayer-funded study that concluded no link between poverty and lottery sales, presents the findings of several other studies that have time and again found an irrefutable link between poverty and lottery sales, and poverty and gambling addiction. The author offers insightful comments on these many past studies that have found this strong link and finds the faults in the one study that has concluded otherwise.
This in-depth report from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis studied the relationship between income and lottery revenue and found that a large portion of lottery profits come from people who receive some financial subsidy from the government, suggesting the lottery profits from those with the least disposable income.
A report by two economists from the Pew Research Center surveyed political corruption before and after the legalization of casino gambling in states and found that corruption tends to rise when casino gambling is legalized and casinos begin to operate. The report gives two theories as to why this is. First, the economists report casinos tend to open up in states with a “culture of corruption” already established . They also report that the casino industry and casino interests are able to obtain the legislative results they want in a way that is “perhaps tainted by corruption”. This article from Al.com summarized the report’s findings.
2013 Mississippi leads nation in corruption when linked to legalization of gambling
Atlantic City is known for its many casinos and for being, essentially, the Las Vegas of the east coast. The many casinos were brought into Atlantic City under the pretense that they would help the city out of its financial hole. However, even decades after Atlantic City legalized casino gambling and spent millions on the casino industry, according to this article by the USA Today, the city continues to struggle.
The Resorts World Casino is located in Queens, New York, and is known as the country’s #1 top grossing casino, reaping huge profits for the casino owners. However, if you take a look at the surrounding city and its residents, you will see that these immense profits have yet to rescue this city from its poverty, contrary to the promises upon which it was built. This article by The New York Times explains this situation and shows that, although casinos are often built with the promise of economic revitalization, even the richest of casinos don’t send the necessary help that the surrounding communities desperately need.
This in-depth report by the Detroit Free Press chronicles the downfall of one of America’s great cities and explores the many reasons behind the city’s financial collapse. Though originally heralded as a possible savior for the city, casino gambling became just another factor in the downfall of Detroit. Gambling, and the tax increases that often went along with it, were one of the factors the article identifies as contributing to Detroit’s decline.
Since the decline of the steel industry, Gary, Indiana has been a city struggling to keep up. Twenty years ago, Gary opened its first casinos, spirits buoyed by the casino industry’s lofty promises of economic development and help for cities in need. Now, after two decades of casino gambling and two decades of struggles in Gary, lawmakers are beginning to see that those promises have not panned out.