Casinos Are Booming Thanks to State Governments' Need to Exploit Gambling Addicts for Revenue

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Growing up, Arelia Taveras' family often traveled to Atlantic City for a fun time together in the casinos. Gambling was always portrayed as a fine form of entertainment, and so at 21, Taveras didn’t hesitate to make her way down to the Jersey Shore with her family about once a month.

More than a decade later, Taveras was visiting AC alone every weekend. As an escape from the stresses of being a lawyer, she would gamble from Friday night until Sunday, playing blackjack, poker and roulette.

Soon, the casinos brought in the comps. Limos, with her personal pillow in the trunk, took her to and from her home in New York. She was given free trips to partner casinos in the Bahamas and Las Vegas, where her friend had to fly out to bring her back home after she got lost in gambling for 21 days. She was only supposed to stay for three.

Taveras hit rock-bottom when she drained a bank account that consisted of her client’s money. A million dollars in debt, a grand larceny charge, and two and a half years in jail later, Taveras is now left trying to pick up the pieces.

Gambling is no longer an acceptable activity in her eyes. “It’s killing people. I lost my professional career. I lost my reputation. I probably wasn’t even meant to survive this.”

What Are the Odds That Casinos Hurt?

People have been gambling for thousands of years. But in recent decades, casinos in the U.S. have seen enormous growth. Long after Nevada legalized casino gambling in 1931, New Jersey legalized it in 1976. Since then, casinos have rapidly sprung up, and today there are about 900 casinos throughout 38 states nationwide.

Why such a drastic expansion?

Casinos have primarily escalated because state governments are increasingly turning to them for a source of revenue. In the past, federal officials often publicly acknowledged the harms of gambling. For instance, during the Great Depression, New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia dumped slot machines into the Long Island Sound and shamed those who attempted to prey on his residents during financial hardship.

Today, however, state governments work with casino managers in the name of revenue, which they justify by allotting the money to projects that are meant to enhance communities. In reality, however, governments’ partnership with casinos ultimately harms communities. Unlike other “sin taxes,” like those on tobacco, alcohol and, in the near future, possibly soda, which act to discourage destructive behavior, casino taxes are collected with the government’s encouragement, through partnership and advertising.

Now, with casinos closer to peoples’ homes, more Americans are able to go to casinos and can go more often. In 2011, the manager at a Pennsylvania casino was quoted saying that his customers visited an average of 4.5 days a week.

And with more gamblers comes more gambling addicts. The National Council on Problem Gambling states that in the U.S., an estimated 2 million adults are pathological gamblers, while about 4-6 million are problem gamblers, who meet certain criteria including chasing losses, irritability when attempting to stop gambling, etc. And problem gamblers don’t just lose all their money — consequences are severe. One out of every five problem gamblers attempts suicide.

Meanwhile, casinos make about 90 percent of their profits from problem gamblers, which make up 10 percent of their customers. Though state governments claim that casino tax is a “voluntary tax,” it’s clear that the majority of the revenue is essentially comes from an addict tax.

As casino owners and state governments create and then exploit addicts, they prey on people’s weaknesses, many of which are constructed by societal and economic structures. For one, they prey on people who are desperate for some extra cash. A survey done by the Consumer Federation of America found that one out of five Americans thinks the best way to achieve long-term financial security is to play the lottery. And while casinos are a different form of gambling, people who gamble may have similar high hopes.