For those who requested information on museums and nearby casinos::

[From messages directed to me on and off the net, and from the
literature on gambling, gamblers, and the economic and social impacts
of casinos].  Even though there has been a very substantial increase
in the number of jurisdictions that have approved casino gambling
in North America and elsewhere, there are very few generalizable
impacts.  The character of a casino, its size, where it is located, whether
it has a monopoly on gaming in its area, whether it offers associated
amenities such as hotel rooms, food services,  and entertainment,
all can influence both the magnitude and the character of its patrons and
their impacts on the surrounding area.

When a casino is very large, it is likely there will be major
transportation and people congestion in the area even when there is no cross-
visiting involved between a museum and a casino.  This appears to be
the case with the  Mystic Seaport Museum and Foxwoods, for example.
To the extent that there is cross-patronage, it is apparently much more likely
that a museum visitor will gamble than that a casino visitor will also visit a
nearby museum.

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.

The most positive impacts of a casino occur when visitors are attracted to
an area who would not otherwise be there.  The casinos in Windsor, Ontario
and Tunica County, Mississippi are cases in point since the vast
majority of their customers come from outside their immediate
jurisdiction. That means resources are brought to the community
rather than having been diverted from other uses within the community.
Area Museums may benefit directly if additional tourism
infrastructure is provided for casino customers that will also serve the
museums' visitors, or indirectly if casino taxes are made
available through government grants to assist in the operation of a museum.
In extreme cases, Melbourne for example, a casino may provide direct
funding for a museum.  A $250 million museum building is under
construction there funded entirely from casino revenues.  Several
other List members observed that casinos have responded generously
to requests for contributions to cultural organizations in the
community where they are located.  The social stigma associated with
gambling (in North America anyway) is still sufficient to cause gaming
organizations to demonstrate their good citizenship intentions from
time to time.

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.  It might also find
itself employed as a child dump, however, since museums are generally regarded
as desirable (and safe) places for children to spend time and few of
the other destination activities in communities known for their casinos are chil
d
-oriented.

This hardly touches the surface on the subject of casinos and their
possible impacts on museums but, since this already exceeds
by far the lenth of the average Museum-L message, I am going to stop.
I will be submitting a report to the Canadian Museum of Civilization
on this topic around the first of May.  Their Director, George MacDonald,
has already indicated he would be happy to share the report with anyone
who may be interested.  I will inform Museum-L when it is available.

cheers, bob
Robert F. Kelly


University of British Columbia
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