Editorials
On this page we feature monthly editorials, column excerpts and opinion reviews that are focused on the casino industry.
When Gambling Comes to Town
By Stephen J. SimurdaSource: Columbia Journalism Review
Just five years ago state-authorized casino gambling in the United States was confined to Nevada and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Today, casinos can be found in eighteen states. Many are Indian-owned -- as in New York, Connecticut, Minnesota, Michigan, Arizona, and Oregon. Others are floating casinos -- like those on the rivers of Illinois, Iowa, and Mississippi. And more are on the way. Missouri and Indiana have recently approved casinos, and the biggest one in the world is being built in New Orleans. Several more states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and South Carolina, are considering various forms of legal gambling.
"All of a sudden it's like, bang! Legalized gambling is the biggest economic development force in almost every state in the country," says Robert Goodman, an urban planner at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who recently completed a two-year study of the gambling industry. The current gambling surge can be traced, in part, to state lotteries, which have become a fixture in the American landscape in the thirty years since New Hampshire started the first public lottery of this century. Today, thirty-six states have lotteries, and legislators would be hard pressed to make fiscal ends meet without the millions of dollars they generate.
Taken together, these developments add up to a fundamental shift in the role gambling plays in U.S. society. In 1992, Americans spent a staggering $ 30 billion on legal gambling, a figure The Wall Street Journal reports was more than was spent on books, movies, recorded music, and attractions (such as amusement and theme parks) combined. The transformation of America into a gambling society was, of course, greatly accelerated by years of federal cutbacks, compelling cities and states to generate more revenue at a time when few politicians dare to prescribe an old- fashioned formula -- raising taxes. So state legislators, mayors and governors are often quite receptive to gambling promoters, a group that generally includes deep-pocketed developers, prominent local attorneys or financial consultants and, in some cases, powerful political colleagues. Armed with glowing economic impact studies, promoters set out to convince communities that casino gambling will provide a big boost to their economy.
More Testimonial Listings
Find a Campus
How to pick the right school
Create a game-plan for achieving a degree in casino management.Casino Industry Statistics
Extensive research has been conducted over the last few years that signify an increasing amount of casino-related jobs and increased diversity of career types within the casino and gaming markets.