Sir, The casino industry promotes itself as pure entertainment, as well as a provider of economic development and tax revenue increases.
What are the facts? Despite all the promises made for Atlantic City, New Jersey, when gambling was approved in that state, the facts are that of the 2,100 businesses operating in 1976 (before the casinos were up and running) only 1,110 were left in 1985. Between 1975 and 1984, manufacturing employment fell by 54 per cent in Atlantic City real estate, insurance and financial employment fell by 23 percent. Within the same period, one third of all the restaurants were out of business. Casinos have cost communities money, not made it for them.
New Jersey is not the only example. Studies have shown, again and again, that in spite of all the projections that are made about the good things that casinos will do for a community, the long term impacts are very detrimental to the economics of a city and to the city's social problems it has been seen in community after community, where Casinos have been legalised, that other businesses in the community dry up. They go out of business, and that means less jobs for people. Most casino states in the US spend three times as much per year on casino related criminal justice and social services as they raise in casino revenue.
The effect on crime is even more remarkable. The FBI reports that crime is higher in states where gambling is legalised. In the little town of Deadwood, South Dakota, which voted to legalise casino gambling in 1989, arrests were up 250 per cent and child abuse reports jumped 60 per cent. Gulfport, Mississippi saw at least a 200 per cent increase in rape and robberies, as well as drastic increases in burglary. Crime in Atlantic City went up 309 per cent with the advent of casinos. There is not a city that has allowed casinos in it that has not had to significantly beef up their law enforcement staff. The New Jersey Crime Commission said, after reviewing all the statistics, that, in their opinion, it was inescapable that casino gambling is a magnet for street criminals.
Outside of the US, the executive director of The Compulsive Gambling Society in Christchurch, New Zealand recently said that "in the year before the Christchurch Casino opened the society's hot line received 11,000 calls. That figure increased 40 per cent once the casino opened."
The fact is that casinos don't work. They don't work as a means of development, they cannibalise local economies and they destroy human beings. They actually destroy jobs. Yours, etc., Castleknock, Dublin 15.