Casino gambling and crime: a panel study of Wisconsin counties

Abstract

The potential relationship between gambling and crime has been a key issue among supporters and opponents of the recent spread of casino gambling in the US. This paper empirically investigates the potential link between casino gambling and crime for Wisconsin counties using the theoretical framework of Becker. Our results show that the existence of a casino within the boundaries of a county led to an increase in the county's crime rates. The results also suggest that a strong spillover effect took place across space, with counties adjacent to casino-counties experiencing higher crime rates. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Institutions and Casinos on American Indian Reservations: An Empirical Analysis of the Location of Indian Casinos

“…15 Eadington (1999) and Kearney (2005) offer comprehensive reviews of the literature on the effects of casinos more generally. Some authors find evidence for a link among casinos, crime, and gambling addictions (Evans and Topoleski 2002;Gazel, Rickman, and Thompson 2001;Grinols andMustard 2001, 2006;Lorenz 2004). There is evidence that large Indian casinos are strongly associated with improving economic conditions for tribes: lower unemployment, higher incomes, and better health (Anderson and Parker 2008;Anders 1999;Christiansen 1998;Cookson 2006;Taylor, Krepps, and Wang 2000;Evans and Topoleski 2002).…”

Vulnerability modeling of casinos in the United States: A case study of Philadelphia

“…Their study went on to examine accessibility to VLT in walking distance in Montreal. Other studies have examined varying longer distance from casinos including 50 miles (Nicols, Stitt, & Giacopassi, 2002) and within the county of the casino (Gazel, Rickman, & Thompson, 2001).…”

Do Good Fences Make Good Neighbors? The Cross Border Impact of Casino Entrance

“…However, because the specification is not a theoretically derived growth model, there are a number of potential issues regarding specification that can best be answered by comparing different choices of models. The application of a presence dummy without a fully specified growth model has been frequently employed in gambling analysis (Gazel, Rickman, and Thompson ; Walker and Jackson ; Szakmary and Szakmary ). Indeed, the most fully outlined model that could be located was a Bayesian approach in which regressors of key regional economic activity formed the whole of the regression (Ryan et al.…”

“…As previously noted, the development of a literature of the impacts of gambling is not limited to the commercial economic impacts. An extensive literature estimating the externalities associated with gambling activities includes such factors as crime and personal bankruptcy (see Gazel, Rickman, and Thompson 2001;Grinols and Mustard 2001;Kindt 2001;Thompson, Gazel, and Rickman 1997). Again, these issues are important but beyond the scope of this analysis.…”