The Impact of Casino Gambling on Individual Bankruptcy Rates from 1990-2002

Abstract

Past research has ignored the impact of a casino on personal bankruptcy rates over time. Using simple descriptive statistics and regression analysis, this study examines the impact of casinos and casino tenure on bankruptcy rates from 1990 to 2002. This analysis indicates that, after an initial increase in personal bankruptcy rates, counties that legalized casino gambling experienced lower personal bankruptcy rates during the first several years of casino operations. However those rates then increase, rising above those of non-casino counties after nine years of operations. By the thirteenth year of casino operations, the estimated bankruptcies per 1,000 population are 6.7 for counties that added casinos compared to 5.2 for a non-casino counties. For the period of time covered by this analysis, this amounts to a compound annual growth rate in personal bankruptcies which is 2.3 percent higher for the county that added a casino than for an equivalent non-casino county.