Do Casinos Cost a Country or Benefiting them?
For the past 20 years, the casino industry of United State grown fully and it still keep on growing. As per the reports released by the American Gaming Association, there are almost 1000 tribal and commercial casinos operating in the country. However, there are controversies revolving around plans of expanding casino gaming.
A Deeper Look at Cost Benefits
Whenever casino expansion or legalization is taken into mind, there are several issues that do come up. Casino proponents are arguing that casinos will be creating various things such as:
- Jobs
- Tax revenues and
- Push average income higher
Oppositions are arguing that social costs similar to industry cannibalization, crime as well as problem gambling would outweigh the forecasted benefits. It is true that both parties are discounting the claims of each and with that in mind, what does research tells us about?
With regards to economic benefits brought by casinos, there have been numerous studies focused on employment, wages and economic growth. Perhaps, the most in-depth study performed on wages and employment was done at US county level. Controlling for various factors, the results revealed that counties that have casinos were able to generate higher employment levels compared to those that have none and the wages were a bit higher in counties that have casinos.
Tax benefits
Possibly, the single most significant political benefit associated with casinos would be the tax revenues. Despite the fact that majority of the states have legalized gambling provided small proportion of the state tax receipts, casino taxes make it simpler among politicians to steer clear of tax increase or spending cuts.
Policymakers in several parts of the country have looked and reviewed various approaches to be able to understand the potential impact of casinos. There are states that have commissioned a comprehensive study while several others acted without having enough evidence. In the state of Massachusetts, they have commissioned comprehensive multi-year research of both the social as well as the economic impact of introducing casino gambling in their state.
It is true that these casinos create array of impacts onto its host communities; they are creating both benefits and costs and both are definitely less important compared to the casino’s strongest oppositions and supporters.
All about the Country’s Economics
But looking at the economies’ perspective, even taking into mind the challenges in measuring them, benefits provided by casinos are more likely to outweigh the costs – with key benefits being those to players who love gambling in these establishments. An evidence of this is the expansion of casinos to the online realm with names like casinochap.com and many others.