According to a 2002 poll conducted for the American Gaming Association (AGA) by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc., and the Luntz Research Companies, Americans in favor of casinos in their communities outnumber those who disapprove of local casino gambling. Of those with an opinion, 49% indicated some degree of favor, while 40% indicated disfavor. A 2004 AGA poll showed that about two-thirds …
Native American tribes who encounter opposition to their casino plans attribute some of the opposition to the issues described above and some of it to racism. On the other hand, some critics of tribal casinos believe that they encourage a cycle of dependence. These critics claim that tribe members who were formerly dependent on the federal government are now dependent on their tribal government. I…
Assessing the overall effects of casinos on society is a difficult task. There are many factors to consider. Most relate to economics, but some relate to quality of life and moral issues. The latter are difficult to gauge in quantitative terms. In 1996 Congress created the National Gambling Impact Study Commission (NGISC) to study the economic and social impacts of legalized gambling. The commissi…
American casinos took in nearly $44 billion during 2003, making the casino industry a very big business. From an economic standpoint, most casinos have been a huge success for their investors. Commercial casino investors range from middle class stockholders in major corporations to billionaires like Donald Trump and Steve Wynn. Most tribal casinos have been economically successful as well, bringin…
According to the AGA study 2004 State of the States, commercial casinos generated tax revenues of $4.32 billion in 2003, up from $4 billion in 2002. Nevada generated the greatest tax revenue in 2003 ($776.5 million), followed by Illinois ($719.9 million) and Indiana ($702.7 million). Racetrack casinos generated tax revenues of $765.6 million in 2003, up from $718 million in 2002. According to a 20…
According to the AGA in 2004 State of the States, commercial (nonracetrack) casinos employed more than 350,000 people in 2003. Although this number is up slightly from 2002, it is down from the nearly 365,000 people employed in 2001. Nevada accounted for 192,812 of commercial casino jobs in 2003, or 55% of the total. Racetrack casinos in Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Wes…
According to a poll conducted for the AGA by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc., and the Luntz Research Companies, 76% of those polled in 2003 believed that casinos can play an important role in a community's entertainment and tourism options. Certainly, no destination better represents the marriage between gambling and tourism than Las Vegas, Nevada. In the early 1990s the city began …
Officials must realize that legal gambling will attract an unsavory element that can jeopardize the safety and well-being of the city's residents and the many visitors who come to gamble. —FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Federal Bureau of Investigation, January 2001 Casino gambling in its earliest years was largely run by mobsters, gangsters, and Mafia families. After gambling was lega…
In January 2000 an off-duty police officer shot and killed himself at a high-stakes blackjack table at a Detroit casino after losing more than $15,000 in one afternoon. The possible link between casino gambling and suicide rates has been the subject of much study over the years. A study done in 1997 at the University of California at San Diego concluded that cities with casino gambling had suicide…
A gambling problem and bankruptcy are like baseball and hot dogs. —James Houston, a compulsive gambler Establishing a definitive link between gambling habits and bankruptcy is difficult. A study published in 2001 by SMR Research Corporation of Hackettstown, New Jersey, attributed 14.2% of U.S. bankruptcy filings to gambling problems. The researchers compared bankruptcy filing rates during 2…
In its final report the NGISC briefly addresses the relationship between casino gambling and domestic problems, such as abuse and neglect. The NGISC relied on the report Gambling Impact and Behavior Study: Report to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago. NORC examined the rates of domestic problems in te…
In the AGA's 2003 State of the States: The AGA Survey of Casino Entertainment survey, participants were asked to indicate who they thought bore the most responsibility for addressing the problem of compulsive gambling in the United States. The majority of respondents (63%) said that gamblers themselves should be held most responsible. Another 15% thought that society at large should take th…
The legal gambling age in all commercial casinos in the United States is twenty-one, and in tribal casinos it varies from eighteen to twenty-one. AGA's 2003 State of the States survey asked participants about who they thought bore the most responsibility for addressing the problem of underage gambling in the United States. Survey respondents indicated that the owners of gambling facilities …
Casino gambling and politics have always been linked. Concerns about influence peddling and bribery are major issues to many people. Some states prohibit casino applicants from making political contributions to state and local candidates. For example, the Michigan Gaming Control & Revenue Act of 1997 prohibits political contributions to state and local candidates and committees from "…
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