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Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming-025

College of Business Administration
Reno, NV 89557-0208

Phone: (775) 784-1442
Fax: (775)784-1057

University of Nevada, Reno
Maintained by: Judy Cornelius
corneliu@unr.nevada.edu
Last Modified: 12/04/2002

B. Grant Stitt and Mark Nichols, University of Nevada, Reno
David Giacopassi, University of Memphis

(Funded by the National Institute of Justice, Grant No. 98-IJ-CX-0037)

As part of a larger study to analyze crime in new casino jurisdictions, a survey was conducted in seven communities that initiated casino gambling in the 1990s. The seven communities are Sioux City, Iowa; St. Joseph, St. Louis City, and St. Louis County, Missouri; Alton, Peoria, and East Peoria, Illinois; and Biloxi, Mississippi. The purpose of the survey was to collect opinion and perceptual data from community residents regarding the impact that casinos have had on crime and the quality of life in these communities. The present analysis examines resident perceptions of problem gambling within their communities and, more specifically, prevalence of problem gambling among friends and relatives.

The analysis is based on a total 2768 voluntary and anonymous interviews of adult residents of the seven study communities. The interviews were accomplished through use of a computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) survey. The number of interviews for each community varied from a low of 101 in East Peoria to a high of 420 in St. Joseph. The number of interviews from each community is believed sufficient to ensure the reliability and robustness of results.

Combining the responses of all seven jurisdictions, the mean estimate is that 16% of new casino jurisdiction residents have a gambling problem. The range is from 11% in St. Louis County to 18% in Sioux City. When asked about number of friends with gambling problems, 68% of those who responded answered "none," and 32% indicated one or more friends had a problem with gambling. When asked about relatives with gambling problems, 81% responded that no relative had a gambling problem, and 19% indicated one or more relatives had a gambling problem. Respondents who are younger, female, less educated, and who have lower incomes tend to perceive a greater percentage of the population with a gambling problem. The research also finds that individuals who estimate higher proportions of problem gambling in a community tend to have more negative attitudes about casino gambling generally.

The results suggest that when problem gambling occurs "close to home" (among friends or relatives) it has a more salient effect on the individual's perception of problem gambling in the community. It should also be noted that respondent perception of problem gambling within these communities is at a much higher level than is found by more objective measures. However, the finding that residents of these new casino jurisdictions perceive much higher levels of problem gambling than is generally recognized by scientific studies is itself noteworthy.