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Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming-025 College of
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784-1442
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CRIME IN NEW CASINO JURISDICTION
B. Grant Stitt, University of Nevada, Reno; David Giacopassi, University of Memphis; Mark Nichols, University of Nevada, Reno (Funded by the National Institute of Justice, Grant No. 98-IJ-CX-0037) Executive Summary To determine the effect of casinos on crime in new casino jurisdictions, crime data were collected from police department records in seven jurisdictions. The seven jurisdictions (Biloxi, MS; St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and St. Joseph, MO; Alton and Peoria, IL; and Sioux City, IA) each initiated casino gambling in the 1990s and have had casino gambling for a minimum of four years. This time frame allows comparisons to be made before and after casinos were in operation. Crime rates were calculated for each offense in each community based both on population and population at risk, which adds tourists to the resident population. Crime data for both serious crimes and for relatively minor offenses were collected since logic dictates that such crimes as credit card fraud and DUI are more likely related to gambling than are murder and rape. Comparing the before and after crime rates utilizing the population at risk (the more conservative measure to gauge a possible casino effect), the data reveal few consistent trends in crime. In three communities (Sioux City, Peoria, and Biloxi), there were many more crimes that significantly increased than decreased. In three other jurisdictions (Alton, St. Louis (city), and St. Louis County), there were many more crimes that significantly decreased than increased. In one city (St. Joseph), the vast majority of crimes showed no change. The Wilcox on Signed Rank Test for Paired Differences was used to analyze offense categories for which data were available in five or more communities to compare crime rates before and after the introduction of casinos. Few statistically significant changes are found in pre and post casino periods. Analyzing the traditional crime rate measure based on resident population, data for burglary and larceny are found to be significant at the .10 level and suggest that there was a decline in burglary and an increase in larceny. Results for drug violations and family offenses are significant at the .05 level and are consistent with increases in these offenses. When examining crime rates normalized by the population at risk, only burglary and drug violations appear to have significantly increased. The analysis indicates that there are few consistencies between communities when comparing the before and after crime rates for new casino jurisdiction. It is possible that the numbers (both crime and tourism statistics) are so imprecise as to result in these inconsistencies. It is equally plausible that the effects of casinos in a community are quite varied, depending on a multitude of variables beyond the scope of the present research. Based on the differential impact that casinos have on crime in these communities, we can conclude with some confidence that simple analyses and broad generalizations are not sufficient to capture the complexity of what occurs in communities when legalized casino gambling is introduced.
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