Pros and Cons of Building a Casino in Your Neighborhood
Pro’s • New Jobs
• Entertainment
• Expand Tourism
• Contribution to Community
• Contribution to Charitable Organizations
• Lower taxes for Residents
• Tax Revenues
• Higher Wages
• Higher Property Value
• Extends Visitors Stay in Area
• Money put back into Local Economy
• Adds to a City
• Attracts People
• Traffic of People – Better Known
Con’s • Street Crime
• Prostitution
• Takes from Local businesses
• No New Businesses
• Erosion of Work Ethic
• Pathological Gamblers
• Increased Bankruptcy Rates
• Preys on Poor and Elderly
• Lost Productivity
• Traffic Congestion
• Entry Level Jobs – Low Paying
• Reality Money not re-spent in Local Economy
• No Taxes
• Environmental Effects
Three essential conditions must be simultaneously satisfied if a particular cost is to be classified as a private cost: 1. Gamblers must be fully informed
2. Gamblers must be rational
3. Gamblers must be required to bear the total costs of their gambling
If any one of these conditions fails to be satisfied, an element of social costs exists. For example, if gamblers cease work in order to gamble and gamble away their family assets, leaving their families to claim social welfare benefits, the rest of the community is bearing social casts. The gamblers may have mad rational decisions in that they know that the community will provide a safety net. They might have made different decisions had the safety net not existed. One distinction that must be made is between real and pecuniary costs. Real costs represent a withdrawal of resources from other potential uses- they represent a subtraction from society’s total welfare. Pecuniary costs represent costs borne by some members of the community but which are exactly matched by benefits received by others. For example, assume that
• Entertainment
• Expand Tourism
• Contribution to Community
• Contribution to Charitable Organizations
• Lower taxes for Residents
• Tax Revenues
• Higher Wages
• Higher Property Value
• Extends Visitors Stay in Area
• Money put back into Local Economy
• Adds to a City
• Attracts People
• Traffic of People – Better Known
Con’s • Street Crime
• Prostitution
• Takes from Local businesses
• No New Businesses
• Erosion of Work Ethic
• Pathological Gamblers
• Increased Bankruptcy Rates
• Preys on Poor and Elderly
• Lost Productivity
• Traffic Congestion
• Entry Level Jobs – Low Paying
• Reality Money not re-spent in Local Economy
• No Taxes
• Environmental Effects
Three essential conditions must be simultaneously satisfied if a particular cost is to be classified as a private cost: 1. Gamblers must be fully informed
2. Gamblers must be rational
3. Gamblers must be required to bear the total costs of their gambling
If any one of these conditions fails to be satisfied, an element of social costs exists. For example, if gamblers cease work in order to gamble and gamble away their family assets, leaving their families to claim social welfare benefits, the rest of the community is bearing social casts. The gamblers may have mad rational decisions in that they know that the community will provide a safety net. They might have made different decisions had the safety net not existed. One distinction that must be made is between real and pecuniary costs. Real costs represent a withdrawal of resources from other potential uses- they represent a subtraction from society’s total welfare. Pecuniary costs represent costs borne by some members of the community but which are exactly matched by benefits received by others. For example, assume that