Gambling Establishments Research Articles

ALL IN: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF LEGISLATIVE VOTING ON INTERNET GAMBLING RESTRICTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES

In 2006, the U.S. Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) which prohibited financial institutions from processing transactions arising from online gaming activities, thereby severely hindering U.S. residents from participating in online casino games, primarily poker. Enactment of this legislation followed lobbying and political pressure from a variety of interest groups. By examining House roll call votes, we identify empirically the sources of political influence that resulted in passage of the internet gambling legislation. We find that party affiliation was of primary importance, with Republicans more likely to vote in favor of the bill. The percentage of constituents who are Evangelical Christians and also the number of gambling establishments in the district were positively associated with votes for the bill. However, contributions from the gaming industry decreased the probability a congressman would vote for the bill. (JEL D72, L83)

Ethical ideologies, perceived gambling value, and gambling commitment: An Asian perspective

This study evaluates the relationship between ethical ideology and gambling commitment, and the moderating effect of perceived gambling value. Through a field survey of patrons of a leading Asia's gambling establishment, 382 usable responses were received. Data were analyzed using factor analysis and hierarchical multiple regression. The results show that ethical ideologies and perceived gambling value predict a significant amount of variance in gambling commitment. Specifically, idealism has a negative relationship with number of years of gambling and amount gambled. Relativism associates positively with number of years of gambling and amount gambled. Customer value negatively moderates the relationship between idealism and the two dimensions of commitment, and positively moderates the relationship between relativism and the commitment dimensions. Furthermore, idealism has a negative effect on perceived gambling value, and relativism has a positive effect on perceived gambling value.

The Gaming Zone: A One-Mile Limit at Stateline

Transcendent Lake Tahoe landscapes and a fervent gambling economy were first conjoined in an odd mid-twentieth-century partnership. A 1946 article in the Nevada State Journal titled "Curb on Clubs at Lake Tahoe Being Sought" reported on petitions being circulated by residents in southeastern Lake Tahoe that sought immediate legislative action to control post-World War II commercial development, targeting gaming and liquor establishments. Lake Tahoe millionaires, by and large lured to the Lake by a Depression-era One Sound State program designed to entice the wealthy to Nevada with tax advantages, were militant and vociferous in opposing haphazard growth. Faced with easing travel restrictions in the post-war years, an imminent opening of the Highway 50 Echo Summit all-weather route in 1947, and second-home real estate growth, Tahoe's privileged residents attempted to limit change brought on by easier access. The resultant political alliance, Citizens' Committee for Tahoe Township— forged decades before the creation of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) in 1969—recognized a need for throttling development near southeastern Lake Tahoe. The outcome was an interdiction of gambling from a "one-mile limit" outward, with ensuing zoning ordinances that restricted heavy commercial and gambling establishments to the Stateline area. It can be argued the Citizens' Committee for Tahoe Township was taking action to preserve their Old Tahoe culture. Seeking to regulate and restrict gambling was not environmentalism, in the sense of curing past damage; it was about future self-interests protecting a secluded Depression-era lifestyle.

Casino Security Risks and Outsourcing Criteria

Security is a major issue for casinos and other gambling establishments. millions of dollars change hands at a casino in any one day and patrons must feel safe and that the gaming is honest and secure. This study consists of two parts. The first focuses on the security risks facing casinos including those associated with theft, cheating, cyber threats, underage gambling, and Internet gambling. The second investigates the criteria that should be taken into consideration when choosing an outside security organization for a casino. These include image and reputation, cost effectiveness, communication and level of control, knowledge and experience of security, and culture and employees. Recommendations are made on how overall security can be improved on gambling premises and how successful implementation of outsourced security can be made.

Female Prostitution in Costa Rica: Historical Perspectives, 1880–1930

Anne Hayes’s work offers us an interesting look at prostitution in the periphery of Costa Rica. She focuses on the port Puntarenas during the years 1880 to 1930 as a way to explore questions of liberalism, development, reformism, labor, gender, and Costa Rican “exceptionalism.” Hayes argues persuasively that the liberal state did not target prostitutes for moral reform in the periphery as they did in the central plateau and the capital of San José. Hayes is able to question the centrality of “la buena sociedad cafetelera” (the good coffee society — the upper class who derived their income from coffee), in the development of Costa Rican liberalism. Hayes’s focus on the periphery allows us to see the contradictions, especially regarding labor, in the liberal model.Hayes’s study argues that because of Puntarenas’s location and economic importance to the government, prostitution became labeled as work rather than deviance. The government relied on the port for income and was reluctant to interfere in the daily activities of residents. Because the government derived so much income from the sale of alcohol in the port due to the state liquor monopoly, it was leery of policing consumption and “vices,” such as prostitution, that arose from the sale and consumption of alcohol. The passage of the Vagrancy Law of 1887 allowed the government to arrest “notorious loiterers or frequenters of bars and gambling establishments” (p. 157). The 1894 Ley de Profalaxis Venérea legalized prostitution and exempted prostitutes from the Vagrancy Law. Thus, according to Hayes, many women who were out of work told authorities that they were prostitutes in order to avoid incarceration. Prostitution therefore became defined as work, rather than vice or deviance, in the periphery. Puntarenas’s distance from the capital and its centrality to the Costa Rican economy allowed for competing discourses on vice, deviance, and women’s work, challenging the standard historical narrative of Costa Rican development.Hayes writes well and her book is well organized. She uses a broad array of predominantly government sources including censuses, government reports (memorias), and the Judicial Section of the Costa Rican National Archive, paying particular attention to the injurias, that is, complaints regarding insults intending to harm the reputation of another. She also looks at records from church archives as well as national and local newspapers.Hayes’s work makes an important contribution to our understandings of gender, prostitution, and labor. Her study could be strengthened, however, by greater engagement with the extant literature on gender, prostitution, labor, and liberalism in Latin America. It would be interesting to see how Costa Rica fits into the larger trends happening elsewhere in Latin America during the same time period. Greater use, perhaps, of the injuria records may have allowed her to mine for the voices of the prostitutes themselves and may have made for livelier reading. As it is, she only uses those records briefly in chapter five of the text. Nevertheless, this is a solid study that should be of interest to many scholars of Costa Rica and of gender in Latin America.

An analysis of the accessibility of video lottery terminals: the case of Montréal

BackgroundResearchers and public health officials in Canada, the United States and Australia have for some time noted broader geographic accessibility to gambling establishments, above all in socioeconomically underprivileged communities. This increase in availability could lead to more and more gambling problems. This article focuses, in an ecological perspective, in particular on a spatial analysis of the geographic accessibility of sites possessing a VLT permit in the Montréal area, i.e. Montréal Island, the South Shore and Laval, from the standpoint of the development of an indicator of the vulnerability (socioeconomic components and demographic components) to gambling of populations at the level of certain neighbourhood units (dissemination areas). With the recent development of geographic information systems (GIS), it is now possible to ascertain accessibility to services much more accurately, for example by taking into account the configuration of the road network.ResultsThe findings of our analysis reveal widespread geographic accessibility to sites possessing a VLT permit in the downtown area and in pericentral districts. In some neighbourhood units, a site possessing a VLT permit may be within a three-minute walk. In the region studied overall, average walking time to a VLT site is nine minutes. Access to this type of service on foot is usually limited in the outskirts. However, a number of groups of sites possessing VLT permits are found along certain axial highways. According to local spatial self-correlation analyses, the findings suggest a significant link between walking accessibility to sites possessing VLT permits and the vulnerability of the communities. In a number of neighbourhood units with ready access to VLT's the populations display high vulnerability.ConclusionThese findings reveal that accessibility to sites possessing a VLT permit is often linked to the vulnerability (socioeconomic and demographic components) of communities. Reliance in our analyses on neighbourhood units with fairly small areas enabled us to emphasize the rectilinear dimension of the spatial distribution of sites possessing VLT permits. This is a significant link that public health officials must consider when elaborating programs to combat pathological gambling.

Table of contents October 2006

At a time when land-based gambling opportunities are widely available, why might some people choose or prefer to gamble on the Internet? We investigate this question using qualitative and quantitative data collected from an Internet-based survey of 1,920 Internet gamblers. The primary reasons people gave for preferring Internet gambling were (a) the relative convenience, comfort, and ease of Internet gambling; (b) an aversion to the atmosphere and clientele of land-based venues; (c) a preference for the pace and nature of online game-play; and (d) the potential for higher wins and lower overall expenditures when gambling online. Findings suggest that online venues may offer their clientele a range of experiences and benefits that are perceived to be unavailable at land-based venues. The authors recommend research into whether a competitive edge exists between different aspects of the gambling market, including Internet venues versus land-based gambling establishments.

Access to gambling and declaring personal bankruptcy

The link between gambling and bankruptcy is investigated. By exploiting a natural experiment, refining the identification techniques traditionally used in the literature, and incorporating time effects, it was found that casino style gambling and pari-mutuel wagering have different impacts on bankruptcy rates. The results show that pari-mutuel gambling increases bankruptcies for counties within 25 miles of a gambling facility by 9.25%. This represents a total increase of more than 1500 bankruptcies for the studied counties. Bankruptcy rates for counties more than 25 miles from pari-mutuel gambling establishments are not impacted. In addition, casino style gambling showed no significant impact on county bankruptcies, regardless of accessibility.

CASINOS AS “HOT SPOTS” AND THE GENERATION OF CRIME

ABSTRACT Casino venues, according to prevailing assumptions, tend to be high crime areas. Often, they are also tourist attractions. Both of these factors may be the major contributors to the creation of “hot spots”. While previous studies have examined the casino-crime connection at an aggregate level, the present research focuses on the geographic distribution of crime in a major casino resort city to determine the spatial impact of gambling establishments on criminal activity. Relying on police incident reports, this paper examines the following questions: What is the impact of the “population at risk” on a casino's crime problem and what is the spatial “reach” of casinos in terms of their effects on street crimes (“spill-over” effect)?

Productivity Measurement in Gambling: Plant-Level Evidence from Gambling Establishments in the United Kingdom

There have been numerous studies of the impact of investment in information technology (IT) on manufacturing productivity (e.g., Brynjolfsson and Hitt (1996)) and Morrison (1997)), but little evidence on this relationship in services. We attempt to fill this gap, by analyzing the impact of IT on the relative productivity of gambling establishments. Ours is also the first empirical study of productivity in gambling, one of the fastest growing industries in the service sector. The econometric analysis is based on data from the Annual Respondents Database (ARD) file, consisting of individual establishment records from the U.K. Annual Census of Production. The ARD file contains detailed data on output, materials, energy, employment, and numerous plant and firm characteristics and is quite similar to the U.S.-based Longitudinal Research Database (LRD). Production function models provide an excellent fit to the data, yielding plausible elasticity estimates and indicating constant returns to scale. More importantly, we find that gambling establishments investing more heavily in computers are more productive than comparable establishments.

Regional Variation in Bankruptcy Filing Rates

Nonbusiness bankruptcy filing rates have increased very rapidly over the last couple of decades. In 1980, roughly 15 of every 10,000 Americans filed for bankruptcy protection. By 2004, that number had reached 54 of every 10,000 Americans. These alarming increases in bankruptcy filing rates over the last decade were largely the impetus for the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, which went into effect in October, 2005. A substantial literature already exists that seeks to determine the causes of personal bankruptcy, but critical holes in the literature remain. In particular, existing studies offer only weak inferences about the role of stigma in explaining the decision to file for bankruptcy or in explaining regional variation in bankruptcy filing rates. I enhance the existing literature by using innovative approaches to measuring the effects of age and geography, traditional proxies for stigma, and by utilizing a novel proxy for stigma, namely, religious adherence. There is also a lack of consensus on the effects of gambling on bankruptcy, with most research finding no statistically significant relationships. I utilize a unique measure of proximity to gambling establishments and subsequently find more definitive results. The existing literature lacks consensus on the effects of homestead exemptions as well, with some finding positive effects, some finding negative effects, and still others finding no effects. I assert that the explanation of these inconsistent results may lie in endogeneity, and therefore I estimate two-stage models that effectively instrument for homestead exemptions. In addition, I explore the effects on bankruptcy filing rates of factors generally left out of existing studies, including small business and self-employment, a full distribution of age and income, more narrow demographic definitions, disability, lack of health insurance, public assistance, housing and vehicle choices, and additional information on debts and debt service.

The “Locals” Market: An Emerging Gaming Segment

One of the newest customer segments to be identified by casino marketers is the "locals" market, or local resident gambler market. This study addresses the relative lack of empirical data on the "locals" market segment. The purposes of the study are to identify important reasons for visiting a particular casino; to identify which casinos respondents visit most often and why; to gain an understanding of such behavioral variables as gambling budget, time spent gambling, and favorite game; and to determine perceptions of different casinos in the Las Vegas area. The results may not generalize across all casino markets but they do provide insight into gamblers' activities and behavior patterns. A telephone survey administered to residents of the Las Vegas metropolitan area yielded a sample of 637 participants who gamble for a least 15 minutes once every 2 months in a legalized gambling establishment. A customer satisfaction index based on casino performance on importance variables is presented.

Indian Reservations in the United States: Territory, Sovereignty, and Socioeconomic Change

In this cultural-geographic study of the American Indian reservations in the 48 contiguous states, Klaus Frantz explores the reservations as living environments rather than historical footnotes. Although this study provides researched documentation of the generally deplorable living conditions on the reservations, it also seeks to discover and highlight the many possibilities for positive change. Informed by both historical research and extensive fieldwork, this book pays special attention to the natural resource base and economic outlook of the reservations, as well as the crucial issue of tribal sovereignty. Chapters also cover the demography of American Indian groups and their socioeconomic status (including standard of living, employment, and education). An afterword treats some of the developments since the book's initial publication in German, such as the effects of the 1988 Indian gaming law that allowed Indian reservations to operate gambling establishments (with mixed success).

Familial influences on gambling behavior: an analysis of 3359 twin pairs.

Pathological gambling is becoming an increasing problem in the United States as the number of legalized gambling establishments grows. To examine vulnerability to pathological gambling, we estimated the familial contributions (i.e. inherited factors and/or experiences shared by twin siblings during childhood) to DSM-III-R pathological gambling symptoms and disorder. Data were obtained from a telephone interview performed in 1991-92 utilizing the Diagnostic Interview Schedule Version III-Revised. Interviews were administered to 6718 members of the nationally distributed Vietnam Era Twin Registry of male-male monozygotic and dizygotic twin pairs who served in the military during the Vietnam era. Inherited factors explain between 35% (95% CI: 28%, 42%) and 54% (95% CI: 39%, 67%) of the liability for the five individual symptoms of pathological gambling behavior that could be estimated statistically. In addition, familial factors explain 56% (95% CI: 36%, 71%) of the report of three or more symptoms of pathological gambling and 62% (95% CI: 40%, 79%) of the diagnosis of pathological gambling disorder (four or more symptoms). Familial factors have an important influence on risk for pathological gambling behavior. The increasing access to legalized gambling is likely to result in a higher prevalence of pathological gambling behavior among individuals who are more vulnerable because of familial factors.

On the "Indianness" of Bingo: Gambling and the Native American Community

In recent years a great deal of attention has been paid to the development and apparent success of the American Indian gambling industry. Discussions in the national media have generally focused on the legality and economic impact of reservation gambling, especially because of its power to redistribute wealth and transform regional politics. Without ignoring the importance of those issues, I will examine how reservation gambling has affected the Native American community itself and contributed to the ongoing transformation of contemporary Indian identities. The proliferation of reservation gambling began in the late 1970s. Offering high-stakes bingo to the public, the earliest reservation gambling facilities in Maine and Florida were enormously profitable. Soon tribal councils throughout the United States were developing plans for their own bingo facilities. Their progress, however, was hindered by growing opposition. Before the emergence of Indian bingo, state governments had complete authority to control and limit high-stakes gambling within their borders. By claiming sovereign rights of their own, the tribes challenged that authority. As the number of reservation gambling establishments grew, lawmakers sought ways to limit and abolish their operation. The controversy might have ended at the state level if tribal operators had not found an unlikely ally in the federal government. In an ap-

Casino-Related Deaths in Atlantic City, New Jersey 1982–1986

The first legalized casino-hotel opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1978. Annually, more than 30 million people visit the "Gambling Capitol of the East Coast." As a result of this growing influx of people, the Atlantic County Medical Examiner's Office began compiling statistics in 1982 of casino-related deaths. Data on 398 casino-related deaths occurring in 1982-1986 were collected and analyzed: 83% of the total number of fatalities were sudden cardiac deaths. Most of the victims were elderly white retired men who had previously diagnosed medical conditions. Many of the victims' underlying medical problems are of a type known to be associated with compulsive gambling. The majority of deaths occurred during the afternoon hours on weekends in October, January, and May. Of the victims, 86% were from New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. For Atlantic City, a gambling community known to have a relatively high rate of crime and drug-trafficking, only 1% of all deaths were homicides. We speculate that the stress of gambling activities may induce sudden cardiac death. We therefore recommend that communities planning to legalize casino gambling mandate that gambling establishments provide emergency health care services for their patrons.

Real time computer applications in gambling

Man's instinct to gamble is at least as old as government's need for funds. So it should come as no surprise that government has learned to regard gambling as a source of revenue, whether through direct taxation or through government-run gambling establishments. In the US recently, changing moral attitudes towards gambling as well as increasingly desperate local financing needs, have produced a surge of interest in legalized gambling. Added to these factors has been the belief that legalizing gambling is one way to fight organized crime.

The New Federal Attack on the Loan Shark Problem

At time when presidential candidate makes an attack on loan sharking such significant part of his campaign that it is highlighted in his acceptance speech and rebroadcast as part of one-minute spot political announcements, the timeliness of this subject is apparent.' This high-level attention illustrates growing public awareness of the very serious nature of the loan shark problem. In recent years number of investigations of loan sharking have been undertaken by governmental agencies and other entities. Their conclusions are striking. Loan sharking has been characterized as a serious threat, not only to the unfortunate borrowers but also to the entire economic community and as of the principal and most lucrative operations of the criminal underworld.2 The seriousness of the problem is accentuated because loan sharking has close connections with other activities of organized crime, including bookmaking and narcotics distribution.3 Pushers loan money to addicts to finance drug purchases.4 Money lenders frequent gambling establishments to offer services to overenthusiastic patrons who want one more chance.5 In this setting the Congress of the United States chose in 1968 to make what it termed extortionate credit transactions federal crime and did so as Title II of

Chicago: Shades of Capone

In the late 1800's, an alliance was formed between First Ward political leaders in Chicago and gamblers and brothel owners. The underworld became organized, and eventually the infamous Capone gang was spawned. Headed successively by Big Jim Colosimo, Johnny Torrio, Al Capone, Frank Nitti, and Tony Accardo, the syndicate is still active in gambling and vice—always sources of underworld wealth. Capone gangsters have maintained a vital interest in the beer industry from Prohibition to the present time. They have corrupted labor unions and exerted influence over trade associations. They have invaded the field of finance, food business, automobile sales, and the coin-machine industry. Running through the diversified activities of the Capone organization is a pattern of ruthless discipline imposed by violence. Of fifteen gang killings in the Chicago area in 1961, eight of the victims had connections with Capone-syndicate gambling establishments and five were dealing with loan sharks. A union president who opposed the misappropriation of union funds by a Capone hoodlum was ambushed and slain by two gunmen imported from Detroit. During the Roaring Twenties, the gang leader was ostentatious and flashy. Today, although he has outward refinements, he has not basically changed. His methods of operation remain much the same as they were in years gone by.

The Career of a Syndicate Boss

Tony Accardo, boss of the Capone syndicate, was born of Italian immigrant parents in Chicago in 1906 and was reared in a poor neighborhood. His first conflict with the law occurred before he was sixteen. Before reaching twenty-one, he was an associate of the Circus Café gang members who became affiliated with the Capone syndicate and were suspects in the St. Valen tine's Day Massacre in Chicago in 1929. When only twenty-four years of age, Accardo was arrested with "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn and charged with carrying concealed weapons. The following year his name was on the Public Enemy list. He was married in 1934; he and his bride were accompanied on their honeymoon by a police sergeant who, twenty-five years later, toured Europe with him. In the 1930's and 1940's Accardo operated lucrative gambling joints. He played a leading role in obtaining the early release on parole of the Capone mob leaders who had been convicted in the $7 million moving picture extortion conspiracy case in 1943, and he became the syndicate boss. As leader of the Capone organization, Accardo was in volved in a fierce war over the racing information service. In 1949, he muscled into a $26 million a year gambling syndicate in Florida; in the same year, following violence in Chicago's South Side policy racket, Accardo and Jack Guzik were paid $278,000 by the operators of the Erie-Buffalo policy wheel. Accardo's interests include Nevada gambling, and he has exerted influence in naming, as well as ousting, the labor relations counsel for the Chicago Restaurant Association. From 1940 to 1955, inclusive, Accardo reported, for income tax purposes, a total of $1,155,524.17, an annual average of $72,220; over 43 per cent of it was listed as coming from one gambling establishment and from unidentified miscellaneous sources. When the Internal Revenue Service exerted pressure on Accardo to prepare com plete returns, he suddenly appeared on the payroll of a beer sales firm at a salary of $65,000 a year, although he performed no work. Prosecution was initiated for an income tax violation; he was convicted but on appeal the conviction was reversed. Accardo continues his way of life, enjoying as much as ever the luxury of his twenty-two room mansion in suburban River Forest and his contempt for the government, its officials, and the public.