snip:
>When a casino is small and draws from a very limited
>surrounding area, the impact may hardly be noticeable. Gamblers
>will travel directly to a casino and, after exhausting themselves
>and/or their resources, leave the casino and the community without
>sampling anything other than gambling. The one possible exception
>being pawn shops, which apparently proliferate in the area surrounding a
>casino.
(I live and work in an area sandwiched between many casinos. I would be
very interested in any research that examines the impact of a casino on
more of an individual level. I have seen and heard of local business
owners losing their businesses, and men and women losing their families.
While it is not the case for everyone, gambling can be as addictive as
alcohol or any other vice.
My questions regarding the impact of casinos on a community would be more
personal. How are families affected? How are neighborhoods affected? Is
there any visible change in morale? priorities? values? How much time
have individuals in the community redirected to gambling? How was that
time spent before the casino was introduced to the area? Since the
introduction of the casino, have their been changes in the level of
volunteering or charitable giving in the area? Has their been any impact
on schools, crime, visitors' perception of the area, or locals' perception
of the area? All of these things, it would seem, would impact a museum or
any other business/institution in the community.)
>If a casino provides a range of destination activities other than
>gambling, or it locates in a community where such activities are
>available, it may, as in the case of Las Vegas, attract
>visitor parties where not everyone seeks to gamble. It is noteworthy
>that two of the newest casino complexes in Las Vegas are, explicitly,
>family destination resorts. They also have come closest to attaining a 100%
>occupancy rate during the shoulder seasons while the dozens of other
>casino complexes are less successful in attracting guests. If non-gambling
>visitors are attracted to the area, a nearby museum may experience new
>visitors, or may be able to attract them to the museum.
(An individual our museum contracts with recently reported that the "family
destination" isn't working as well as the casinos expected, and that they
are rethinking their strategies. Has anyone else heard anything similar?
It doesn't necessarily mean that families are not being attracted. Perhaps
it has more to do with the number of families participating, the amount
they are spending, etc. Any supporting, negating, or additional info?)
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William H. Stirrat (Bill)
Evaluator/Market Researcher ? !
Our Minnesota Science Hall o
Science Museum of Minnesota /( )\
30 East 10th Street /\
St. Paul, MN 55101
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As always, opinions expressed are my own.
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