Professor of Business Administration since 1978, John Warren Kindt from the University of Illinois, is perhaps one of our country’s foremost experts on the effects of gambling and casinos in the United States. He has a distinguished and creditable background. He received an A.B. in Business from William and Mary; an M.B.A. from the University of Georgia; a J.D. from the University of Georgia; an LL.M., International Law from the University of Virginia; and an S.J.D., International Law from the University of Virginia. Kindt has written numerous papers on antitrust, tax, commercial, environmental, and international law. However, his main expertise is the economics of gambling — from Internet poker games to lavish casinos.
The Biscayne Times of Florida quoted him extensively in a February, 2012 article entitled The Casino Effect written By Erik Bojnansky on the issue of off-shore corporate interests building a mega resort/tourist destination with casinos in Miami, Florida. You can connect to the article here: http://www.biscaynetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1073:the-casi .
I have taken the liberty of quoting some of his remarks:
“Generally there is a bump lasting about two to three years,” says Kindt, who has studied casinos for two decades. ‘There are new construction jobs and a lot of activity as money is coming in’.”
“But Kindt warns that the bump won’t last: ‘Once the project is completed, and slot machines come in, [the casino] takes everything. After that Miami will lose jobs as businesses within a 35-mile radius of casinos… see their profits shrink…’. ”
“Kindt also says that casino games such as poker, blackjack, and roulette are merely ‘window dressing’ designed to draw in players. Slot machines, which include video poker and other electronic gambling machines, are at the heart of all casinos. ‘Every slot machine brings in a minimum of $100,000 a year,’ he asserts. ‘Slot machines don’t create jobs — you just dust them off. And that’s 90 percent of the money.’ According to Kindt, most of that slot-machine money comes from middle-class and poor individuals living near casinos.”
“Each slot machine costs the surrounding community one job per year, Kindt says. In a 2003 article for the Ohio Law Review, he reported that within a newly established casino’s ‘feeder market,’ business and personal bankruptcies increase between 18 and 42 percent, while ‘impulse’ business transactions in the area decline by 65 percent.”
“ ‘When billions of dollars are going into slot machines, where are those billions of dollars coming from’?” Kindt asks. ‘They are no longer buying cars, refrigerators, or even food and clothing’.”
Here are more quotes from scholarly publications and testimony before state and national fact-finding committees: The link is: http://www.casinowatch.org/john_kindt/kindt_index.html
“Every video [slot] gambling machine takes $60,000 out of the consumer economy.”
“$60,000 spent in a consumer economy multiplies by respending into $180,000.”
“For every slot machine you add, you lose one job per year from the consumer economy. Therefore 5,000 new video gambling machines costs the economy 5,000 lost jobs each year.”
“Legalized gambling cost taxpayers $3 for every $1 in state revenue to government”
“Any legislator who says he doesn’t see the downside hasn’t done his homework”
“My bottom line is this is no time to be gambling with our economy”
“Gamblers spend 10 percent less on food; 25 percent less on clothing and 35 percent less on savings”
“Thirty-seven percent of gamblers dip into their savings to fulfill their habit”
“In 1993, 40 percent of Minnesota restaurateurs reported declines attributed to casinos”
“Bankruptcies and addictions increase in areas with casinos”
“An Osage tribal study found that between $41 million to $50 million left a 50-mile radius around their own casino”
“The gambling interests like to point to the construction jobs, but those jobs go away”
“Gambling interests hire lots of economists to do impact studies, but what you need is cost-benefit analysis, and you’ll never see the industry finance those”
“No reputable economist anywhere believes it’s [gambling] an economic tool”
“For every dollar of revenue generated by gambling, taxpayers must pay at least $3 in increased criminal justice costs, social welfare expenses, high regulatory costs, and increased infrastructure expenditures”
“Generally, traditional businesses were slow to recognize the way in which legalized gambling captured dollars from across the entire spectrum of the various consumer markets, but now they know”
“People will spend a tremendous amount of money in casinos, money they normally would spend on refrigerators or a new car. Local businesses will suffer because they’ll lose consumer dollars to casinos.”Quoting Donald Trump
“And as far as jobs go, for every one job that the casino creates, one is lost in the 35-mile feeder market”
“A study in Illinois in the mid-1990s found that 65 percent of businesses were hurt by the proximity of gambling”
From the travel math website , http://www.travelmath.com/cities-near/Glendale,+AZ, one can find that the following cities and towns are within 26 miles of Glendale.
Cities, towns, and suburbs near Glendale, Arizona. The center of each city listed is within 26 miles of Glendale, AZ:
Peoria, AZ Sun City, AZ Phoenix, AZ El Mirage, AZ Surprise, AZ |
Avondale, AZ Goodyear, AZ Sun City West, AZ Paradise Valley, AZ Scottsdale, AZ |
Tempe, AZ Mesa, AZ Chandler, AZ Buckeye, AZ Gilbert, AZ |
If nothing else, this bit of information should give these cities pause when they learn that the economic impacts of a casino can affect anywhere from a 35 to 50 mile radius. I wonder if Mayor Barrett of Peoria would be so enthusiastically supportive of this proposed casino if he were to realize that the giant, economic sucking sound affecting Peoria was due to this casino?
As Professor Kindt suggests, it’s time for a cost-benefit analysis – not a fiscal impact study (having been fooled by previous fiscal impact studies I know they can be made to prove or disprove anything) – but an extensive and thorough cost-benefit study that proves or disproves once and for all, the impact of a casino in Glendale. A local economist such as Elliot Pollack could perform such a study but who would pay for it? The Tohono O’odham? Not on your life. The State? Nope, again. Glendale? It’s tapped out. How about a consortium of the cities in the above list? After all, they would be affected… wouldn’t they?