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Don't dispair, Zack... I've just now had some time to run a search on gaming and cities' economic prosperity... here's some information from a couple of popular magazines for now... I'll do a search in academic journals a little later.. this was just the easiest to mine... while this applies strictly to Indian reservation gaming, there are certainly some lessons to be taken from them:

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...Yet a trip into Indian country reveals what should come as no revelation at all: that most of America's 1.7 million Indians, and especially those living on reservations, are poor. Native Americans have a poverty rate 2 1/2 times the national average, a suicide rate nearly twice as high, and an alcoholism rate six times greater. And while mega-resorts like billion-dollar-a-year Foxwoods (currently the largest casino on the planet) may be the symbols of Indian gaming, they are also its anomalies. Of the 556 federally recognized tribes, 361 have no gambling operations at all; of the 195 that do, just 23 account for 56% of revenues--mostly very small tribes near very big population centers. Even fewer have made the sort of outsized payouts by which their individual members could truthfully be called "rich."

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- Title: THE BIG GAMBLE , By: Useem, Jerry, Fortune, 00158259, 10/02/2000, Vol. 142, Issue 7

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The amount of money involved is staggering. Last year 290 Indian casinos in 28 states pulled in at least $12.7 billion in revenue. Of that sum, TIME estimates, the casinos kept more than $5 billion as profit. That would place overall Indian gaming among FORTUNE magazine's 20 most profitable U.S. corporations, with earnings exceeding those of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Merrill Lynch, American Express and Lehman Bros. Holdings combined.

But who, exactly, is benefiting? Certainly Indians in a few tribes have prospered. In California, Christmas came early this year for the 100 members of the Table Mountain Rancheria, who over Thanksgiving picked up bonus checks of $200,000 each as their share of the Table Mountain Casino's profits. That was in addition to the monthly stipend of $15,000 each member receives. But even those amounts pale beside the fortunes made by the behind-the-scenes investors who bankroll the gaming palaces. They walk away with up to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of Indians get nothing. Only half of all tribes--which have a total of 1.8 million members--have casinos. Some large tribes like the Navajo oppose gambling for religious reasons. Dozens of casinos do little better than break even because they are too small or located too far from population centers. The upshot is that a small number of gaming operations are making most of the money. Last year just 39 casinos generated $8.4 billion. In short, 13% of the casinos accounted for 66% of the take. All of which helps explain why Indian gaming has failed to raise most Native Americans out of poverty.

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- Title: Wheel Of Misfortune , By: Barlett, Donald L., Steele, James B., Time, 0040781X, 12/16/2002, Vol. 160, Issue 25

The Herald (Glasgow)
July 19, 2004

"Giant casinos 'will lure more poor Scots into gambling';Expert fears social consequences of Clyde projects"

Stephen Stewart

THE number of problem gamblers will increase dramatically across Scotland if plans are approved for four mega-casinos in Glasgow, according to Europe's only professor of gambling.

The respected academic fears that Glasgow's deprived communities would be most susceptible to the lure of the massive developments, which have been lauded as a keystone of the city's regeneration.

Dr Mark Griffiths, professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University, warned that Glasgow, which has four casinos planned, could follow the example of South Africa, where deregulation of gambling and the growth of the super-casino created an epidemic in gambling addiction.

"Glasgow has pockets of poverty and deprivation and these area may be more susceptible to these casinos and the issue of problem gambling," he said. "There has to be a cost- benefit analysis about the advent of casinos and their positive and negative aspects. Poorer people have been shown to spend a disproportionate amount of money on gambling.

"In South Africa, poorer people were flocking to casinos which sprung up around the townships. In some casinos, a small stake can produce a potentially life -changing win.

"The UK government is introducing these unlimited jackpots (in some casino gaming machines). In the vast majority of cases, when these big destination -type casinos are opened, problem gambling increases.

"People will also travel in from smaller areas to get the big gaming experience and take that back home with them, and a proportion will develop a gambling problem. The problem is effectively exported. They will go back to their smaller towns and casinos and feed their playing behaviour there." ...

Calgary Herald (Alberta, Canada)

July 11, 2004 Sunday Final Edition

Game of chance: Tourists don't come to Alberta for the gambling. Instead, the province's booming VLTs, casinos and bingo halls are fed by loyal homegrown gamblers. As the industry expands, the stakes are getting higher.

Linda Slobodian

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Lady Luck's humble beginnings in Alberta trace back to the 1920s when she started prowling around church basements. Once a week her beckoning finger offered gamblers lucky enough to yell "bingo" a chance to win jackpots worth a few dollars.

A few dollars more went to the church for good works to be done for the poor and disadvantaged.

Fast-forward to Alberta 2004.

Lady Luck beckons 24/7 -- luring gamblers to 2,111 lottery ticket terminals; 5,995 video lottery terminals in 1,139 locations; 6,347 slot machines in 16 casinos; two racetracks and 53 bingo halls.

In 2002-03 more than $1.1 billion in profits from all gambling sources went into Alberta government coffers. Another $205 million went directly to charities, projects and causes.

More than 82 per cent of Albertans gamble -- be it a $1 scratch ticket or $1,000-a-hand wagers at casino tables.

The government is betting this quest to win Lady Luck's favour will intensify -- anticipating a profit of $599 million from VLTs and $509 million from slot machines alone in 2004-2005.

Critics have long argued the market is glutted with too many gambling places.

Buckling to pressure, the government put a cap on the number of VLTs and mildly reduced the number of locations where they can be installed.

Then it lifted a two-year moratorium on casinos, recently approving expansions for some existing facilities and approving licences for two new multi-million-dollar casinos with hundreds of tables, slot machines and wheels.

Proposals for another 16 new casinos throughout the province, seven of them on reserves, are before the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.

Alberta is not a gambling tourist destination and depends largely on its own citizens to keep the industry going.

In an effort to keep interest from waning and to compete for dollars, casinos in particular have been forced to get glitzier and offer more gimmicks and attractions to draw gamblers in.

The government, charities and casino owners continue to cash in on Lady Luck's more sophisticated image.

As appealing as she may be, she's got a dark and sinister side.

It's called addiction.

The Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission (AADAC) says five per cent of Albertans who gamble are addicts.

A 2002 AADAC study found 9.5 per cent of junior and high school students are problem gamblers.

Experts say research into and treatment of this vice that ruins lives is in its infancy...

"Governments always call it the Gaming Department. It's never the Gambling Department. They're making it sounds like it's benign, it's just gaming, just checkers. It is a spin on words," said Gray.

"Gambling attacks, feeds on the quality of life. It diminishes our standards and our values as Canadians," said the community activist and former CEO of Canadian Hunter Exploration.

It isn't only the addiction of gamblers that concern Gray.

Governments across Canada have become addicted to gambling revenues, said Gray, who spearheaded the 1998 petition to get the issue of controversial VLTs -- accepted as the crack cocaine of gambling -- on the ballot in the provincial election.

Fifty-eight per cent of Calgarians decided they wanted to have the choice to play video lottery VLTs.

"I lament the fact that governments, aboriginal bands, even charities get themselves locked in to a dependency on revenues from gambling," he said.

"Governments like to distribute some of the money they get from gambling because that helps them whitewash the money. Charities get addicted to the money and then the charities get addicted to gambling."

Gambling, said Gray, is a national issue in the hands of the provinces.

In the 1980s the federal government transferred proceeds of gambling rights to the provinces.

Despite skyrocketing revenues, not everyone is happy with the popularity of gambling that exploded in the 1990s -- coinciding with the increase of electronic gambling like VLTs that came to Alberta in 1992.

"I've talked to many of the premiers and a lot of politicians. In terms of their values, in terms of the morality, they'd like to disengage in many places across Canada," said Gray.

"But they get addicted to the money. They can't replace the money. They don't know how to disengage."

Why the greed, Gray wonders. "In Alberta do we need the $1.1 billion? Could we get along with three or four hundred million less dollars? Of course."

The Alberta government's gambling intake rose from $81.5 million in 1989/90 to $1.1 billion in 2002/03.

In 1995/96 charities received almost $96 million compared with $205 million in 2002/2003.

In that same period, Alberta charities received $200 million from the Alberta Lottery Fund, over and above the $205 million they directly received from running casinos and bingos.

The cost of governments profiting from the "weakest and most vulnerable" of citizens who suffer "a manic addiction" is painfully high, said Gray.

"In these get rich quick schemes, the odds are so horribly stacked against the player. . . What does worry me is the regressive form of taxation it is on those that can ill-afford to lose money.

"Statistics prove that for every pathologically addicted gambler, it affects another 30 or 40 people -- wives, husbands, co-workers, children, friends, associates -- when somebody goes bankrupt, takes their life, gets fired or becomes depressed," said Gray.

The number of identified problem gamblers should raise huge red flags.

"Five per cent of the population, these damaged people, is a very, very large percentage," said Gray.

"We have about three million people in Alberta. That's 150,000 to 200,000 people caught up in this. That's a lot of people. When you use those multipliers that's an impact on a lot of families," said Gray.

"If anything else was to start to damage 200,000 people in Alberta we'd be up in arms doing something about it. If people were becoming injured with tainted water this would be a crisis of unimaginable proportion."

Gray criticized the $5 million allocated to AADAC to treat problem gamblers.

"It's a trickle of money," he said. "AADAC should have far larger amounts of funding. It's nothing -- $5 million out of $1 billion."

What disturbs Gray is that gambling saturated the province with little or no public debate.

"My purpose always has been that there should be public discussion before things are done. There should be public hearings, there should be public input and it should be thorough."

That was the beauty of the 1998 VLT plebiscite, he said.

"It was a democratic debate. We lost most of them by three or four percentage points. In Edmonton it was almost by a single percentage point. I wasn't so disappointed as I was encouraged that we had a debate."

Gray stressed he is very supportive of the Klein government, but not on the issue of gambling.

"I believe we should be showing some leadership by not maximizing and promoting gambling," he said.

"My feeling is its the responsibility of all our elected officials -- be they NDP, Liberal, Conservative, you name it, they are responsible for protecting the people," said Gray.

"None of them are. Nobody has shown leadership in this issue. Nobody."

Even though gambling has been around a long time "we're still struggling with what our comfort level is," said David Hodgins of the Gaming Research Institute and an associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Calgary.

"I think with any addictive behavior or substance society has to find the comfort level. We have established a comfort level with alcohol," he said.

Rules like establishing a legal drinking age and .08 driving limit have helped.

"From a psychological perspective what's important is that there be good public awareness of the risks of gambling," said Hodgins.

"It's up there with drug abuse. More people are experiencing gambling problems than schizophrenia."

Gamblers who come to him for help describe a lot of adverse consequences of their habits, he said.

Almost everybody identifies financial problems along with depression, suicidal thoughts that are sometimes acted out, distress, panic, a negative impact on family and friends, work suffering and poor physical health.

In 2003 the Quebec coroner's office linked 100 suicides over a few years directly to gambling, primarily VLTs.

Hodgins' priority is to conduct a long-term study of problem gambling.

He is part of a team of researchers at the University of Calgary, conducting a national research study looking at self-help approaches to overcoming gambling addictions.

Hodgins, who is still looking for volunteers for the confidential study (call 1-877-437-3777), points to a recent study he did involving 101 participants using the self-recovery approach.

He found that 30 per cent were able to completely quit gambling by 12 months and almost 60 per cent cut their gambling by half.

"Part of why we need to do research is we need to make up for lost time," said Hodgins, referring to the fact that gambling and its associated woes have already saturated the province.

"Many people recover on their own. It takes them many years to do that. We found that 10 per cent seek help. What do you do for the other 90 per cent?"

Hodgins is skeptical of safeguards put in place by the government to discourage problem gambling.

"The closer somebody lives to a casino, the more likely gambling is a problem," said Hodgins.

He's not all that encouraged by changes to VLTs this year, including a message popping up to show gamblers how long they've been playing

"It's like a light cigarette. . . but the cigarette smoker puffs more heavily on it," he said.

"To limit gambling to gambling locations like casinos may be a safer alternative," said Hodgins.

Not if one is an aboriginal with a casino proposal on their reserve, said a recent study conducted by two University of Alberta professors.

The study concluded aboriginals are at an elevated risk of developing gambling addictions.

Supporters of seven proposals for casinos on reserves before the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission argue they will create jobs, raise money for housing and social programs.

Some worry area businesses, particularly the food industry which can't compete with cheap casino prices, will suffer as was the case when a casino opened in Windsor, Ont.

Critics claim casinos will devastate citizens with a penchant for gambling. One need only look to the U.S. to see they've proven a gamble for aboriginals.

On one hand, some reserves anticipating Utopia still live in poverty despite casinos on their lands.

On the other hand, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is eyeing the massive profits of tribal-operated casinos to help downsize California's $15-billion budget shortfall.

He demanded that the state's 54 casinos renegotiate conditions and cough up a collective $500 million.

Considering that Alberta is not a tourist destination and the casinos will tap into local dollars may be cause for concern, said Robert Williams, a University of Lethbridge professor and member of the Alberta Gaming Research Institute.

"Vegas is a really good example of a highly successful casino industry. Ninety per cent of revenues are derived from other jurisdictions. There's a net inflow of wealth," said Williams.

"All of the social problems are shipped home with tourists. That being said, Nevada and Las Vegas are still the suicide capitals of the world."...

Title: A Von Thnen Model of Crime, Casinos and Property Values in New Jersey

Author(s): Andrew J. Buck ; Joseph Deutsch ; Simon Hakim ; Uriel Spiegel ; J. Weinblatt

Source: Urban Studies Volume: 28 Number: 5 Page: 673 -- 686

Publisher: Carfax Publishing, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Abstract: Urban economic models suggest that, ceteris paribus, land values diminish with distance from a central business district (CBD) which 'produces' employment, income and other amenities. A new industry like casino gaming may have jobs and increased income associated with it. These amenities will induce an increase in property values. The size of that increase diminishes with distance from the city centre. The new industry may have the negative by-product of crime, which is hypothesised to have a reversed, although systematic, effect upon land values. That is, it pays to live in the hinterlands far from the source of crime. Thus, theoretically, the net effect of amenities as a function of distance from the central city is ambiguous. Applying the model to Atlantic City shows that the casinos have brought jobs, additional income and greater real estate values to the region, but the positive impact diminishes with distance from the city centre. However, crime has increased at a rate greater than that which existed prior to the casinos. The cost of crime resulting from casinos, as reflected in unrealised assessed real estate valuation, appears to be on average $5.2m per square mile in 1986 (current prices) in the South Jersey area. For an average community in the area it would amount in 1986 to a total of approximately $105m.

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Impact of Light, Medium and Heavy Spenders on Casino Destinations: Segmenting Gaming Visitors Based on Amount of Non-gaming Expenditures.

Authors: Moufakkir, Omar1 Omoufak@chn.nl
Singh, A. J.2 singharj@msu.edu
Moufakkir-van der Woud, Afke3 vande197@msu.edu
Holecek, Donald F.4 dholecek@msu.edu

Source: Gaming Research & Review Journal; 2004, Vol. 8 Issue 1, p59, 13p, 11 charts

Document Type: Article

Abstract: This article discusses the viability of targeting heavy spenders on non-gaming products and services in gaming travel marketing. A sample of visitors to two commercial casinos was divided into light, medium and heavy spenders based on spending per person per day, excluding gambling. Findings indicated that a large number of heavy-spending tourists were not interested in gaming, but in the destination's other tourism products. This suggests that the region's tourism assets play an important role in enhancing casino visitation. Promoting the casino as part of the overall tourism attractions may benefit both the casino and related businesses in the community.

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The demand for casino gaming.

Authors: Thalheimer, Richard1 rtha@gte.net
Ali, Mukhtar M.2

Source: Applied Economics; 5/20/2003, Vol. 35 Issue 8, p907, 12p

Abstract: In this study an econometric model is developed to examine the determinants of the demand for casino gaming, specifically the demand for slot machine wagering at riverboats and racinos. In addition to examining the effects of traditional demand variables, the effect on wagering of variables such as location of a wagering facility and of government restrictions, is examined. A unique measure of accessibility of market area customers to a facility and to competing facilities was developed. The demand for wagering at a facility was found to increase as access by customers in its market area increases and to decrease as access by its customers to competing riverboats, racinos or Indian casinos increases. Government restrictions were found to have an adverse effect on wagering at a riverboat. On the other hand, wagering at a riverboat was found to increase when such restrictions were imposed on competing riverboats. The presence of total loss limits and restrictions on boarding times at a riverboat were found to have reduced wagering by 36% and 35%, respectively. With respect to traditional demand variables, slot machine wagering demand was found to be price elastic at the beginning of the sample period declining to slightly below unit elasticity by the end of the period. Table games offered at a gaming facility were found to be substitutes for slot machines. Demand was found to be negatively related to per capita income at lower income levels and positively related at higher income levels. The proportion of income wagered was found to be greater at upper and lower income levels relative to middle income levels. Demand was found to be positively related to days of operation and number of slot machines.

(Translation: Among low-income players at table games, the less income they had, the higher the demand... and compared to middle income players at table games, the proportion of income wagered by low income players (and less surprisingly nor worrisome, high income players) was greater.)

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