The ABCs of legalized gambling - addictions, bankruptcies and crime

This is an industry that generates addicted gamblers and they are desperate to get money

State-sponsored gambling produces no product, no new wealth, and so it makes no genuine contribution to economic development

Clothing sales plummet, rent delinquencies mount and even grocery sales shrink as gamblers, having tapped out their entertainment budgets, dip into dollars set aside for necessities

It is not economic development; it's about taking money out of the consumer economy and shipping it off to Las Vegas

And as far as jobs go, for every one job that the casino creates, one is lost in the 35-mile feeder market

While gambling addiction can be a social justice reason for some to ban gambling, the economic evidence suggests that the social and economic costs of gambling are $3 to the taxpayers for every $1 in benefits