When Senator Marc Pacheco testified before the Senate Chamber during the Casino Hearing that I had the displeasure of witnessing from the Gallery, surrounded by INDUSTRY LOBBYISTS wearing expensive suits, getting on their cell phones and advising OUR elected officials of how they should vote, the Senator went on at great length (as any who know the Senator can attest) about CRIME.
The Senator, who fell in love with SLOTS, evidence be damned, indicated that there was no proof that slot parlors increased crime more than, say, a mall.
The Senator, who fell in love with SLOTS, evidence be damned, indicated that there was no proof that slot parlors increased crime more than, say, a mall.
This was posted in February 2010 --
New Gambling: A Bad Bet
Compare Tourist-Destination Crime Rates
Grinols presented a long list of crimes, pathologies and social problems in which Nevada is first or among the leaders in the nation, including first in suicide (double the national average), divorce, gambling addictions, child-abuse deaths and per capita bankruptcy, to cite a few. He said crime associated with gambling is not explained merely by the fact that it draws large numbers of people.
His research compared crime at Las Vegas to that at high-tourist destinations not associated with gambling – Branson, Mo.; and the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.
Las Vegas’ crime rate is 1,040 percent higher than Branson’s and 15.7 times higher than Bloomington’s, Grinols reported, although both destinations draw far more visitors per resident than does Las Vegas.
A similar pattern is found when comparing crime rates at large tourist destinations in the National Park System to Las Vegas.
“So it’s not just a matter of number of visitors. It’s also a matter of who is visiting,” he said.
One need not look very far to see the harm wrought by casinos:
• “Embezzling Grows from Addiction to Casinos” (Buffalo News, Feb. 17)
• “Killer Who Was Compulsive Gambler to Be Released from Prison” (Las Vegas Sun, Feb. 17)
• “Problem Gambling Group Hears Former Lawyer’s Addiction Story” (Louisville Courier-Journal, Feb. 12)
Tragically, these are not isolated cases, but are integrally related to the existence of the predatory gambling, especially casinos, upon which state governments are becoming increasingly reliant – and for which states and cities have failed to realize their expected revenue gains.
Bank on Gambling? Dire Consequences
An enlightening article in Esquire last September paints well the dire picture faced by states and municipalities banking on gambling money.
“In most jurisdictions, gambling revenues max out quickly,” wrote Nate Silver. “In Atlantic City, for example, which opened for business in 1978, gaming revenues were no higher in 2008 than they were in 1986, and 2009 is on pace to be the slowest year since 1983. Gambling revenues peaked in 2002 in Illinois, in 2000 in Mississippi, and in 2006 in Detroit, which had only begun to permit gambling ten years earlier.”
Silver added, “What we’ve witnessed, indeed, is something of a race to the bottom,” noting the escalation in gambling as states jumped in to compete with neighbors.
The proliferation of gambling across the nation even further diminishes its already poor ability to generate reliable government revenues.
Once begun, gambling proliferation would inevitably march across the Florida peninsula, as each region demands the ability to compete with the last that obtains new gambling.
The Florida Lottery is a case in point.
Last month, the Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability released two studies that advocated more lottery retail availability, more instant-ticket vending machines and participation in Mega Millions, another multistate lottery only a year after the lottery began participation in Powerball. All of these efforts are to shore up flagging revenues, which are supposedly to the benefit of state education funding.
Truly, it’s a never-ending cycle – and one that is for the worse.
It should not be surprising that I oppose gambling expansion for more than economic reasons. I strongly believe it is immoral for the state to bank on making its citizens losers in a callous and inevitably unsuccessful effort to balance the state’s budget.
Still, on a simple cost-benefit ratio, new gambling does not compute. Florida legislators who insist otherwise do so in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary – and, inevitably, to the serious harm of the citizens they serve.
New Gambling: A Bad Bet
Compare Tourist-Destination Crime Rates
Grinols presented a long list of crimes, pathologies and social problems in which Nevada is first or among the leaders in the nation, including first in suicide (double the national average), divorce, gambling addictions, child-abuse deaths and per capita bankruptcy, to cite a few. He said crime associated with gambling is not explained merely by the fact that it draws large numbers of people.
His research compared crime at Las Vegas to that at high-tourist destinations not associated with gambling – Branson, Mo.; and the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.
Las Vegas’ crime rate is 1,040 percent higher than Branson’s and 15.7 times higher than Bloomington’s, Grinols reported, although both destinations draw far more visitors per resident than does Las Vegas.
A similar pattern is found when comparing crime rates at large tourist destinations in the National Park System to Las Vegas.
“So it’s not just a matter of number of visitors. It’s also a matter of who is visiting,” he said.
One need not look very far to see the harm wrought by casinos:
• “Embezzling Grows from Addiction to Casinos” (Buffalo News, Feb. 17)
• “Killer Who Was Compulsive Gambler to Be Released from Prison” (Las Vegas Sun, Feb. 17)
• “Problem Gambling Group Hears Former Lawyer’s Addiction Story” (Louisville Courier-Journal, Feb. 12)
Tragically, these are not isolated cases, but are integrally related to the existence of the predatory gambling, especially casinos, upon which state governments are becoming increasingly reliant – and for which states and cities have failed to realize their expected revenue gains.
Bank on Gambling? Dire Consequences
An enlightening article in Esquire last September paints well the dire picture faced by states and municipalities banking on gambling money.
“In most jurisdictions, gambling revenues max out quickly,” wrote Nate Silver. “In Atlantic City, for example, which opened for business in 1978, gaming revenues were no higher in 2008 than they were in 1986, and 2009 is on pace to be the slowest year since 1983. Gambling revenues peaked in 2002 in Illinois, in 2000 in Mississippi, and in 2006 in Detroit, which had only begun to permit gambling ten years earlier.”
Silver added, “What we’ve witnessed, indeed, is something of a race to the bottom,” noting the escalation in gambling as states jumped in to compete with neighbors.
The proliferation of gambling across the nation even further diminishes its already poor ability to generate reliable government revenues.
Once begun, gambling proliferation would inevitably march across the Florida peninsula, as each region demands the ability to compete with the last that obtains new gambling.
The Florida Lottery is a case in point.
Last month, the Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability released two studies that advocated more lottery retail availability, more instant-ticket vending machines and participation in Mega Millions, another multistate lottery only a year after the lottery began participation in Powerball. All of these efforts are to shore up flagging revenues, which are supposedly to the benefit of state education funding.
Truly, it’s a never-ending cycle – and one that is for the worse.
It should not be surprising that I oppose gambling expansion for more than economic reasons. I strongly believe it is immoral for the state to bank on making its citizens losers in a callous and inevitably unsuccessful effort to balance the state’s budget.
Still, on a simple cost-benefit ratio, new gambling does not compute. Florida legislators who insist otherwise do so in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary – and, inevitably, to the serious harm of the citizens they serve.
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