This article by the North Carolina Justice Center explains how the North Carolina Lottery is not living up to its promises of education funding. After providing an initial bump in funds for education, the level of education funding has now dropped back down to below pre-lottery levels. The old argument that the lottery will pay for its social injustice by giving money to schools is now defunct, according to the article, because the state spends less on education than it did before the lottery was put in place. Now that the lottery no longer provides money for education, it is no more than “a regressive tax that falls mainly on the poor”.
Form of Government-Sanctioned Gambling
Small businesses in the food and beverage industry hurt by surrounding casinos
Casinos negatively impact small businesses in the surrounding area, especially those in the food and beverage industry. This article from Indian Gaming helps to explain the casino strategy to subsidize food and drink costs with gambling profits to help boost the overall revenues from gambling, which hurts small businesses around the casinos and helps lure players into the casino.
Italian mafia uses German online gambling sites for money laundering
This article from Deutsche Welle examines the use of German online gambling sites by Italian mafia members for transferring money made by human trafficking and drugs into legal circulation. Due to unclear laws, the police are powerless to stop the situation, as more and more illegal money exchanges hands over the internet. A prominent Italian lawyer described the “unbelievable” sums of money flowing through internet gambling, which could total almost $2 billion.
Casinos hurt home values in host communities
A new report from the National Association of Realtors shows how home values in western Massachusetts would be hurt by a casino in the area. Due to its addition of traffic noise and the general bother of an attraction that brings thousands of people in, a casino would have an “unambiguously negative” affect on home values in the areas, sapping as much as $3300 in value from the average homeowner. Below is a copy of the study itself, as well as an article summarizing its findings.
2013 Realtor study NAR- Casino-Research
2013 Realtors- Western Massachusetts casino would hurt home values in host community
Political influence of gambling interests in Illinois grows due to lack of strong regulation
This study by the Common Cause details the growing influence of gambling interests in Illinois. Illinois is one of the few states without a limit on campaign contributions, so deep-pocketed lobbyists and special-interest groups, especially the gambling industry, can use their exorbitant amounts of money to exert influence over Illinois legislators.
Pennsylvania’s failure to limit campaign contributions allows gambling interests to buy their way to legislative victory
This study by the Common Cause shows the growing influence of money in Pennsylvania politics, especially from gambling interests, due to the state’s lack of limits on campaign contributions. Gambling interests with essentially limitless sums of money can thus buy their way to influence and power over Pennsylvania lawmakers.
Poulos v. Caesars World: A Battle over Corrupt Business Practices
This article details the court case Poulos v. Caesars World, where Caesars World, a casino corporation, was sued for “a course of fraudulent and misleading acts and omissions intended to induce people to play their video poker and electronic slot machines based on a false belief concerning how those machines actually operate, as well as the extent to which there is actually an opportunity to win on any given play”. This legal battle of the business practices of Caesars World casinos shows the extent to which players can be swindled into losing large sums of money on games that are deigned for them to lose.
Many Asian-Americans are riding the casino bus everyday just to exist
This article from The Morning Call details a growing phenomenon in the Asian-American community in urban New York. Many of these people are very poor, or even homeless, desperate for a way to make a living. Casinos will often provide $45 in free-play cards to these citizens, as a way of getting them into the door and luring them into playing. These people then take a bus for several hours to a casino, and sell these cards to gamblers at the casino, so they can have cash to support themselves.
2014 Asians at Sands Bethlehem casino ride bus to live
Ottawa Board of Health voices opposition against casinos
The head of the Ottawa Board of Health has come out against the addition of a new casino in the city, instead advocating for increased funds to help aid and prevent gambling addiction, according to this article by CBC News. Instead of adding casinos and increasing the number of gambling addicts, he recommends helping the existing 13,000 problem gamblers already in the city, by increasing funds to local gambling treatment centers and by taking some of the money from the Ottawa Lottery and Gaming Corporation and diverting it to gambling prevention and outreach programs.
Report examines how gambling research is funded
This extensive report by The Goldsmiths Report details the ways in which gambling research is conducted and funded and identifies a need for more unbiased reporting. It provides an interesting look into gambling research and how it can be tainted by the influence of money or lawmakers who are supported by the gambling industry, and is a great read for those interested in how certain influences affect gambling research.