Real costs for everyone

Gambling costs those who NEVER gamble! 

Each compulsive gambler costs the economy between $14,006 and $22,077 per year.  If 2% become addicted, that’s $280 to $440 per year paid by every other citizen!

Real costs for everyone

Gambling costs those who NEVER gamble! 

Each compulsive gambler costs the economy between $14,006 and $22,077 per year.  If 2% become addicted, that’s $280 to $440 per year paid by every other citizen!


Trading jobs kills development

Most casinos attract 80% or more of their market

from a 35-50 mile radius.  Casinos absorb existing entertainment, restaurant and hotel business, and deplete dollars available to other retail businesses.  That destroys other jobs in the trade area and eliminates their sales,

employment and property tax contributions.


Gambling brings addiction

When gambling appears in a community, it brings a wave of addiction.  In a mature gambling market, compulsive gambling typically seizes the lives of 1.5% to 2.5% of the adult population, depending on location and demographics.  That amounts to three to five times the number of people suffering from cancer.  Youth have even higher addiction rates, between 4 and 8%.


Proximity and poverty matter

Addiction rates double within 50 miles of a casino.  A casino within 10 miles of a home

yields a 90% increased risk of its occupants becoming pathological or problem gamblers.  Neighborhood disadvantage increases that risk another 69%.  Slots and other gambling machines push susceptible players to the

pathological level in an average of 1.08 years, vs. 3.58 years with more “conventional” forms of table and racetrack gambling.


Gambling increases crime

Desperate to “chase” and recover gambling losses, pathological gamblers often turn to crime.  Fraud and embezzlement become common among formerly hard-working and highly trusted people.  Panhandling, thefts, break-ins, muggings, prostitution and violent crimes also increase.