From
Beverly Nuckols blog on Texas GOP Vote:
Gambling costs aren’t worth the revenues
“Joe Pags” on
WOAI radio
hung up on me – again – last night. It’s so frustrating to have the
phone sudenly go silent – and, since I’ve turned off the radio while on
the phone, I can’t hear Joe’s next comments.
This time, the topic was
yesterday’s news about a push for legalized casino gambling in Texas and why Mr. Pagliarulo should be able to gamble legally in Texas,
rather than take his money to Oklahoma, Louisiana, or Las Vegas. I’ll
discuss the evidence and give references to studies showing the adverse
effects of gambling later on, but first, let’s examine Joe’s poor
arguments in favor of gambling.
Joe complained about our State
property taxes, as one of the highest in the Nation. Yes, we are ranked
in the top 10, for property taxes. However, Texas’ State sales tax is
moderate and we have no income tax, making our overall tax burden
number 45 in the Country.
He
accused the first caller of “judging” him, because the man said that he
believes that gambling is immoral. No, the man was judging the morality
of
gambling, never brought up the morality of people who disagree with him.
Besides, aren’t all laws based on morality?
Joe
argues that “liberty” demands that those of us who object to gambling
should allow gambling by those who don’t. He even told one caller that
if he doesn’t like gambling, just don’t go to the casino. (Sounds like
one of the shaky arguments in favor of abortion or same sex marriage,
doesn’t it?) However, Joe is advocating a change in Texas’ State law.
Those of us who vote are responsible for the consequences of our votes
and for the laws our Legislators make, therefore we are complicit with
what we consider immoral, whether we partake or not. Joe is still at
liberty to go to a State where gambling is legal. To force us to be
complicit with his gambling is “license,” not liberty.
Joe claims
that everyone who objects to casino gambling should be carrying signs
and protesting the Lottery and racetrack gambling in Austin. Joe may not
realize that many of us objected to both of the above before they were
legalized – and we were right in that they certainly haven’t solved the
State’s revenue problems. Nevertheless, the fact that the rest of us
have other priorities (like my own work for traditional medical ethics
and pro-life laws), doesn’t mean that we are willing to sit still while
the law is changed, yet again.
And then, Joe argues that the fact
that Louisiana and other States continue to allow legalized gambling
must prove that the benefits of gambling outweigh the costs to those
States. That argument hasn’t proven to be true. At best, gambling is a
(mostly) voluntary way of redistributing wealth. In fact,
this report claims
that States only benefit when people from outside come in, leave their
money and then go home, and reports that the National Gambling Impact
Study Commission goes so far as to report that the evidence that
gambling benefits outweigh the costs is “poorly developed and quite
incomplete.”
The economic benefits of gambling are often at the expense of other sections of the economy and are short term. In fact,
analyses indicate
that lotteries and horse racing may actually increase State revenues,
casinos and grey hound racing do not. At least one statistical study
finds no “relationship between real casino revenues and real per capita
income at the state level.”
The societal or socio-economic costs of legalized gambling
have been compared to those of drug abuse and
include the social ills that accompany addictive behavior:
- increased criminal justice system impacts
- health-care related to the treatment of problem gambling
- costs borne by individual problem gamblers and their families
- displacement effects in retail, entertainment and food service sectors
According to the
Texas Public Policy Foundation, the economics of legalized gambling aren’t a good bet for Texas:
Costs
associated with gambling include: (1) a reduction of approximately 10
percent in state lottery revenues; (2) an investment of approximately 10
percent of revenues in regulatory costs for gambling; (3) criminal
justice costs underwriting an 8 to 13 percent increase in crime; (4)
lost state and local revenue resulting from diversion of spending from
goods and services to gambling; and (5) lost jobs resulting from
decreased spending on non-gambling goods and services.
****
The financial costs of gambling are evident in experiences of communities and states:
- 24 out of 57 counties in the U.S. with casinos experienced job losses
- Atlantic
City went from 50th in the nation for per-capita crime to first and
violent crimes rose by 78 percent, during the first three years of
casino gambling
- Sales declined 10 to 20 percent in Natchez, Mississippi after gambling was legalized
- Counties
with casinos have a bankruptcy filing rate that is 13.6 percent higher
than in counties without casinos throughout the nation
- Delaware
reports spending between $1 to $1.5 million annually on
gambling-related costs and Wisconsin reports spending $63 million
annually
The proponents of gambling ignore the costs and emphasize the benefits of tax revenues from gambling.
Bibliography
“Economic
Development and Casinos. Do Casinos Cause Economic Growth?” Douglas M.
Walker, John D. Jackson. American Journal of Economics and Sociology,
Vol. 66, No. 3 (July, 2007).
http://walkerd.people.cofc.edu/pubs/AJES-growth.pdf (accessed 10/10/12)
“Gambling Economics: Summary Facts” Earl L. Grinols. April 2011
http://www.freedomfoundationofminnesota.com/Websites/freedomfoundation/Images/Gambling%20Economics-%20Summary%20Facts%20by%20Professor%20Earl%20Grinols,%204.29.11.pdf (accessed 10/10/12)
“Is
Gambling a Good Economic Development Bet?” Local Government Matters,
Volume 4, Issue 13 Excerpt from Economic Development: Strategies for
State and Local Practice, 2nd Edition. Steven G. Koven and Thomas S.
Lyons. ICMA Press, August, 2010.
http://icma.org/en/icma/newsroom/highlights/Article/100498/Is_Gambling_a_Good_Economic_Development_Bet (accessed 10/10/12)
“Overview
of the Economic and Social Impacts of Gambling in the United States”
Douglas M. Walker. College of Charleston, November 2011
http://walkerd.people.cofc.edu/pubs/2012/OxfordCh_dist.pdf (accessed 10/10/12)
“Social and Economic Costs and Benefits of Gambling” Rhys Stevens. Alberta Gaming Research Institute
http://www.abgamblinginstitute.ualberta.ca/en/LibraryResources/Bibliographies/SocialandEconomicCostsandBenef.aspx
(accessed 10/10/12)
“Social and Economic Costs of Gambling” John R. Hill, Ph.D. Alabama Policy Institute
http://www.alabamapolicy.org/issues/gti/issue.php?issueID=189&guideMainID=9 (accessed 10/10/12)
“Social
costs of gambling nearly half that of drug abuse, new book concludes”
Mark Reutter. Inside Illinois Archives, News Bureau, Public Affairs,
University of Illinois. March, 2004.
http://news.illinois.edu/news/04/0308grinols.html (accessed 10/10/12)
“The
Costs and Consequences of Gambling In the State of Delaware” State of
Delaware, Health and Social Services, Division of Substance Abuse and
Mental Health October, 2002.
http://www.udel.edu/healthserpolresgrp/gamrpt02.pdf
“Triumph,
Tragedy or Trade-Off? Considering the Impact of Gambling” Jason J.
Azmier, Robin Kelley, Peter Todosichuk. August 2001. Canada West
Foundation, Canada.
https://dspace.ucalgary.ca/bitstream/1880/48165/1/200108.pdf (accessed 10/10/12)
“VLTs — What Are The Odds Of Texas Winning?” Chris Patterson Texas Public Policy Foundation
http://www.texaspolicy.com/sites/default/files/documents/2005-03-vlt.pdf (accessed 10/10/12)
Prepared
by Health Services Policy Research Group, School of Urban Affairs and
Public Policy, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware. October, 2002.
http://www.udel.edu/healthserpolresgrp/gamrpt02.pdf (accessed 10/10/12)
Originally posted on WingRight.org.
