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Casinos and Crime: Don't Bet On It

Paper:ewp-em/9707001
From:    
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 97 00:17:21 CDT
Date (revised): Tue, 5 Aug 97 23:40:36 CDT

Title: Casinos and Crime: Don't Bet On It
Author: Scott T. Horn (Salem College)
Contact:
Comments: Type of Document - Microsoft Word 6.0; prepared on IBM PC ; to print on Okidata OL400; pages: 14 ; figures: included. I wrote this for my senior seminar class. My professor said "Hey. This is probably worth something to the casino industry." So, I'm sending a copy of it to the American Gaming Association. Since I have no clout, I wanted to post it here to protect my copyright and gather all the grant money and media attention for myself. Seriously, I hope someone likes it even though I'm not a Ph.D.
Keywords: casino casinos gambling crime gaming
JEL: C22
EWPA-references:
Report-no: STH-0797-0001

Abstract:

Very few econometric studies are available which examine the (alleged) relationship between legalized casino gambling and crime rates. Using data from five states with recently legalized casino gambling, and the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, I develop a fairly simple model to predict the effect of casino gambling on total crime. The results are statistically insignificant. My analysis contains 99 observations. The regression actually shows a negative coefficient for the casino variable, implying that casinos reduce the overall level of crime. Hopefully, more observations will improve the statistical significance or not. Either way, I can't lose. The statistical insignificance is in itself a significant finding. There is probably no relationship whatsoever between legal casino gambling and total crime rates. ** For a hard copy print of the original paper please e-mail a request **

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