GAMBLING & ECONOMICS

Over $638 billion was gambled in the US in 1997.
The Wager, Harvard Medical School Division on Addictions 8/11/98
Nov. 1994 referendum
to legalize slot machines

  • Amusement and entertainment venues in Missouri lost $12 million dollars and 409 jobs to the gambling industry in the last fiscal year according to a study by the Missouri Council on Gaming Research, Inc.
    Daily Dunklin Democrat 12/12/95
  • Casinos are killing off scores of customer starved bowling alleys.
    MO Senator James Mathewson, The Kansas City Star 4/7/98
  • Harrah's N. Kansas City utilizes food as a marketing tool, serving 1000 on a Sunday morning with a $2.00 buffet and providing lots of comps (free meals) in the high end restaurant.
    World Gaming Conference 9/13/95
  • In 1994, the Empress Casinos lost $60,000 to $70,000 on food and beverage. "Food and any other amenity enhances the property."
    World Gaming Conference 9/13/95
  • The casinos have sucked away one-third of Kansas City's Italian Gardens Restaurant business, necessitating a cut of one-half of their work force.
    FOCUS ON THE FAMILY CITIZEN 6/23/97
  • Owner of 5 restaurants in St. Charles says, "casinos have severely hurt my business. I can't even advertise anymore. The casinos monopolize the billboards and drive up prices."
  • Nearly half of the St. Louis City treasury's $5.6 million gambling take goes to pay for police protection near the President Casino.
    St. Louis Post Dispatch 4/22/97
GAMBLING PROCEEDS ARE 1%
OF TOTAL MISSOURI EXPENSES

GAMBLING PROCEEDS ARE 3.2% OF
THE TOTAL EDUCATION BUDGET


Many school districts in Missouri are classified as "hold harmless." These districts will not see a penny from any additional gambling money in the education budget.

  • For every $1 in tax revenue that gambling raises, it creates $3 in costs to handle economic disruption, compulsive gambling and crime.
    Prof. John Warren Kindt, University of Illinois
  • Serious problem gamblers experienced average gambling losses of nearly $100,000 during their gambling careers with debts averaging more than $38,600. Study from the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.
    Rockford Register Star 7/17/96
  • Each pathological gamMedicalbler on average costs the insurance industry $65,468 for fraudulent claims; the annual loss due to fraud by pathological gamblers is estimated to be $1.32 billion.
    The WAGER, Harvard School, Division on Addictions 4/9/96
  • At a conservative cost of $30,000 per new pathological gambler and $10,000 per new problem gambler, from 1994 to 1997 the socioeconomic costs to the taxpayers of Missouri increased $.83 billion plus $1.1 billion for a total of $2 billion.
    Prof. John Warren Kindt, University of Illinois: Statement to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission 5/21/98