Impacts on crime, safety, and quality of life in
casino communities.
“Community perception of casino gambling’s effect on crime in new gambling jurisdictions”
David Giacopassi Ph.D. et al. Criminal Justice Studies: A Critical Journal of Crime, Law and Society
Despite the growth of the gambling industry in the U.S., casinos tend to be viewed as injurious to the social fabric of the community. To determine if residents have accurate perceptions of the effect of casinos on crime in their communities, telephone interviews were conducted with 2,768 residents of eight new casino jurisdictions.
Results indicate that respondents tend to over‐estimate the negative impact of casinos on over‐all crime, delinquency, fear of crime, and on specific offenses.
”Does the Presence of Casinos Increase Crime? An Examination of Casino and Control Communities”
B. Grant Stitt, Mark Nichols, and David Giacopass. Journal of Crime and Delinquency
This study is an analysis of crime in six new casino communities and compares the crime rates to those found in six non-casino control communities. The experimental and control communities were matched on 15 socioeconomic variables. Crime was expected to rise in the casino communities, consistent with routine activity theory and the belief that casinos serve as hot spots for crime.
Crime rates increased significantly in some casino communities, some remained relatively stable, and others decreased. The authors conclude that crime does not inevitably increase with the introduction of a casino into a community.
“A partial test of the impact of a casino on neighborhood crime”
Johnson and Ratcliffe. Security Journal
Ninety-six months of crime incident data were examined to determine the extent to which crime counts changed within the Philadelphia neighborhood of Fishtown after the opening of a new casino. Count modeling regression results indicate that the operation of the casino had no significant effect on violent street felonies, vehicle crime, drug crime or residential burglary in the surrounding community. Drug and residential burglary offenses in the area surrounding the casino neighborhood decreased after the casino opened, suggestive of a diffusion of benefits possibly tied to a change in local police patrols.