Researchers at the University of Cambridge in England have found that homeless people are ten times more likely to be problem gamblers than non-homeless people. While many studies have been done examining the link between homelessness and alcohol or drug usage, this is one of the first to consider how homelessness affects one’s propensity to have a gambling addiction. This article summarizes the study’s findings.
2014 New study reveals scale of problem gambling among homeless population
This study, made for the Iowa Department of Public Health, examined the relationship between college students and problem gambling. After using both qualitative and quantitative data, the study concluded that almost 70% of college students gambled in the past year, and about one in ten met at least DSM-IV criterion for potential problem or pathological gambling, a disturbing figure that presents real concerns for America’s future. Below is a copy of the study, which is detailed and informative, and sheds light on the future of American problem gambling.
2014 Pilot Study of Gambling Attitudes and Behaviors Among Iowa College Students
With the increasing pervasiveness of government-sponsored gambling, the issue of the dischargeability of gambling debt has become very significant. The attached report by two U.S. Trustees of Indiana highlights several major problems including how one research group suggests that about 10 percent of bankruptcy filings are linked to gambling losses, 20 percent or more of compulsive gamblers are forced to file bankruptcy because of their losses, and upwards of 90 percent of compulsive gamblers use their credit cards to gamble.
GAMBLING ON DISCHARGEABILITY: Casino debt collection practices
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”.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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