In society gambling may have affected people personally, families, and even some communities surrounding it. Casino gambling is one of the most famous and popularly used gambling types around the world today. Casino gambling is type that consists of people gambling at casinos with poker games or card games, slot machines are another big money maker for casino owners. Casinos have been thought to affect its surrounding community financially and emotionally. No matter what every person has been affected by gambling and rarely it is positive, most times it is unfortunately negative.
Casino style gambling has caused harm to many individuals and families around the nation. It is the problem gambler who keeps the casino in business and it also takes your money (Frum 2). People with addictions of gambling that are serious and also those who require medical attention are the problem. Gambling was illegal until the late 1980s and up to date we allow only 23 states to have a casino (Frum 2). It was only till recently that casinos have been legalized and more recently till people started noticing the effects of casinos. The new era of authorized casinos are not the types typically seen at Las Vegas grand hotel type styles. These casinos usually attract their customers from nearby communities and do not really tend to stay overnight. Other events such as plays being presented and world class 5 star restaurants are not offered at these casinos. Furthermore, probably the most important aspect, most casinos like these aren’t into card games as more popularly seen in the Vegas and Atlantic City casinos. Gambling today has been modernized into a form of gambling that consists electronically and can be done at home with the use of an everyday computer and/or phone. A typical computer gambler will purchase online currency in a digital casino environment that is made to keep them playing till their money has ran out. It can be put into a simple math equation that comes out as follows: the longer you play will amount to the more you lose. Most of the casinos make their money off the people that gambling at casinos have grown into addictions. The IAV report cites a Canadian study that finds that the 75% of casino customers who play only occasionally provide only 4% of casino revenues (Frum 3). In other words, the problem gamblers are technically the ones who are keeping these casinos running and in business. The problem with these casinos being in business is their effect on local property. The effect of casinos on local property is “unambiguously” negative (Frum 3). Studies from the National Association of Realtors have expressed their opinions on casinos. Some of those studies have concluded that casinos are hypothetically acting as parasites to the economies of the local and surrounding communities nearby. Communities located within 10 miles of a casino exhibit double the rate of problem gambling and unsurprisingly, such communities also suffer higher rates of home foreclosure and other forms of economic distress and domestic violence (Frum 3). In conclusion people can infer that casinos have such a deep impact that they are even affecting families. The Institute for American Values, which is known to be a socially conservative group, has grown worried that casinos might be aggravating income inequality as by their negative impact on family stability. Before casinos huge popularity outburst, the typical gambler was more wealthier than most average people. For example, during that time when casinos weren’t popular, it was only the more wealthy people who were traveling to Vegas. However, now it can be anybody willing to spend time in Vegas can do it.
Gambling is contributing to the problem of economic inequality. There have been studies that
have proven that property in a certain radius from the casino have decreased in value.
Transformations in the audiences that casinos bring in today’s environment are drastically
different to the older Vegas-style, which were consistent with a plethora of high rollers who were
always engaged in games at a table. However, in today’s times the casinos are brought about
different to suit the needs of people who are not really high rollers which are a big percentage of
the people actively at casinos. For example, in 1991 there were 184,000 slot machines in the
United States and by 2010 there were 947,000. By 2013, 62% to 80% of casino revenue came
from slot machines (Flynn 2). One report states that modern slot machines, “are programmed for
fast, continuous, and repeat betting.” In addition, those slot machines that have people so highly
addicted to at times are connected to a central computer that is storing the information of the
preferences of players and has the ability to be programmed to a specific players style of play.
Priority slot machine players are the players who have the higher percentage of turning into a
problem gambler and one Australian study has proven that half of the people in their certain
study who used slot machines showed and expressed symptoms of problem gambling. When
problem gambling becomes too much and at excessive use of an individual it tends to have a
severe impact on families. Some effects that were noticeable among these problem gamblers are
spouses tending to have a higher risk at domestic violence and they also experience higher rates
of divorce and separation. Not only are the adult individuals being affected, it is the children who
as well are being affected. In some cases problem gamblers who had children would sometimes
go to neglecting their kids and jeopardizing their holiday seasons and the chance of ever
attending college. The long term social costs outweighs the short term social costs that take a toll
on the community way more. When casinos were first allowed, specifically in Atlantic City, they
were supposed to turn the already bad economic conditions around. However, even though the
governments many efforts of government bailouts, Atlantic City “remains an economically
troubled place,” (Flynn 3). We know that casinos are having negative effects and that’s from
seeing Atlantic City’s economic troubles but we can see it simpler by thinking how if people are
spending their time and money, losing at the casino, that just means that there money is being
taken out of the communities economy and this effects the other local businesses. For example,
in Atlantic City in 1977 there were 242 local eating and drinking establishments, but by 1996
there were only 142 (Flynn 3). Revenue brought in from these gamblers, and there’s 2 different
types, there’s the occasional gambler and then the problem gambler, the problem gambler makes
up of at least one third up to a half of the revenue being made by these casinos. Those estimates
previously brought up were derived from 11 published studies from America, Canada and
Australia. One Canadian study found that casual players comprised 75% of players, but they
contributed only 4% of net gambling revenue. The archbishop of Toronto, Canada, Cardinal
Thomas Collins, even got in on the topic in his “Pastoral Letter on Gambling, Gaming and
Casinos,” he stated that he is even noticing the affects that casinos and problem gamblers are
bringing to the individuals and families that are attending his parishes. He also adds that,
“individuals, and the government, and charitable organizations as well can become enslaved by
the lure of easy gambling revenue, and that is clearly not healthy.