Casinos bring problems with them

Guest Essay: Casinos bring problems with them
By Jack Patterson


Legalizing casino gambling in New York isn't necessarily a terrible idea, but it is such a sufficiently bad idea that we should know the facts before we passively embrace this economic panacea.

Yes, New York is in trouble after almost 50 years of binge spending and bad economic policy. The solution to the state's debt problem is not casino gambling, however. Vice is not a solution for curing vice, and make no mistake, gambling is indeed a vice.

Casinos more often than not lead to economic loss in the communities in which they set up shop. Gambling in itself is an activity that does not add to the economy. Not one penny. It produces nothing of value. It is pure "entertainment," and any profit it may generate is through the service support industries, such as hotels, air travel and restaurants.

Any employment as a result of either the casinos themselves or the service support industry is typically low-wage, part-time or seasonal work. There is evidence that casinos actually damage local economies, in that they syphon workers from local markets making it difficult for locally owned businesses to find employees. If you believe that the local Walmart kills mom-and-pop shops, wait until a casino moves in. At least Walmart provides goods and services.

It is a fact that casinos attract criminality. One prominent study, (Grinols, et.al, 2000,) found that 8 to 10 percent of crime in casino counties could be directly attributed to the presence of casino gambling in the county. All FBI level I crimes, (aggravated assault, rape,robbery, murder, larceny, burglary, and auto theft,) are escalated in communities in which gambling is legalized.

Casinos also attract prostitution, organized crime, money laundering and drugs. Generating work for law enforcement is never a good idea, but there are other problems.

The social costs of casino gambling are suffered by problem gamblers, and according to a report by the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, the presence of a casino within 50 miles doubled the prevalence of problem gambling. Sixty-two percent of gamblers in treatment admit to committing illegal acts as a result of their gambling. About 21 to 36 percent of problem gamblers reported losing a job due to gambling. Other effects include bankruptcy and even suicide.

Add together the social services costs (treatment and therapy, unemployment, welfare and food stamps), local, state and federal government regulatory costs, the cost of increased expenses to local law enforcement, family burdens and illness, all as a result of gambling, and we begin to see that any positive cash flow generated to the state as a result of gambling is quickly drained away.

We have not yet considered the link between alcohol abuse and casino entertainment, and what a toll that has on local life.

If you have any doubt, the next time you visit Atlantic City, make a stop in the local supermarket, if you can find one. Take a ride downtown. It's not pretty. Some may argue that Las Vegas is the model New York would shoot for, not Atlantic City. The difference between AC and Vegas is that people lived in Atlantic City prior to the casinos. There was an infrastructure upon which a casino's presence had an effect. Las Vegas was a purely ex-nihilo economic construction project. And it still has problems. Thank goodness what happens in Vegas stays there, limited only by the Nevada desert.

Jack Patterson is an adjunct instructor of ethics at SUNY Adirondack.