Casino Gambling

In 1999, Congress released the report of the National Gambling Impact Study Commission (NGISC). The commission found numerous benefits of casino gambling.

"As it has grown, gambling has become more than simply an entertaining pastime: The gambling industry had emerged as an economic mainstay in many communities and plays and increasingly prominent role in state and even regional economies."

Because I agree that casino gambling has become a source of entertainment for many, a business for some, and employment for others, I disagree that the costs of legalized casino gambling in the United States outweigh the benefits.

First, I will illustrate the material benefits of the gaming industry, and then I will explain how government regulation of the industry could take away the most important benefit of casino gambling, personal liberty.

My first contention is that casinos greatly benefit the economy and the tourist industry. Research conducted on behalf of the NGISC confirms the testimony of casino workers and government officials that "casino gambling creates jobs and reduces the level of unemployment and government assistance in communities that have legalized it." The National Opinion Research Center also conducted a Gambling Impact and Behavior Study that found "communities closest to casinos experienced a twelve to seventeen percent drop in welfare payment, unemployment rates, and unemployment insurance." The gambling industry has grown rapidly for last several years, and the 2005 gross revenue total was $84.65 billion. This amount of income illustrates that casinos can effectively revive depressed communities. First, casinos create jobs. Next, hotels and other tourist attractions are built around the casinos. Those create more jobs. All the attention and increased tourism in the area causes money to be spent on the surrounding infrastructure, so casinos have a dramatic economic and social effect on the entire community. One of the best examples of how casinos can revive an area is Atlantic City. In 1976, the citizens of New Jersey voted to legalize casino gambling in Atlantic City. Since then 44,542 people have been directly employed by the casinos. The casinos produce an annual payroll of $1.243 billion, not including benefits, and they also paid $490.19 million in tax revenue in 2005 alone to benefit seniors, disabled and economic revitalization programs. Societal welfare needs to be placed above personal ethical problems because all the money that casinos put in the economy is able to provide too much to let it go to waste.

My second contention is that citizens in a free society should be able to spend their money on whatever peaceful fancy they choose. This line of thinking started in America with Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence. In the Declaration, Jefferson stated that the pursuit of happiness was an inalienable right. Casino gambling is a form of entertainment for many. If spending one's money in a casino makes that person happy and is not physically damaging to that person or someone else, then according to the Declaration of Independence, he or she has the right to gamble in a casino. Besides the fact that gambling is supported by the rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness, spending money in a casino is no different than spending money on some other leisure pursuit. Society accepts people spending money on movie tickets or sport games that have no inherent material value, and casino gambling should not be the exception.

Certain rights and liberties of the entire nation will be at the risk of erosion if the government attempts to prohibit casino gambling. Nineteenth century economist and philosopher John Stuart Mill declared, "Over himself, over his own mind and body, the individual is sovereign." The freedom to pursue happiness is a benefit found in casino gambling that outweighs any negative press. To give up the freedom to do as we please because society has not yet found the solutions to a few problems presented by the gaming industry is unnecessary. To do that would be to put at risk our inheritance, the tradition of individual liberty upon which America was founded, and that indeed would be a reckless gamble.