Professor Earl Grinols, David Mustard, and Cynthia Hunt Dilley published the study, "Casinos and Crime" in June, 1999.  They studied the connection between casinos and crime using county-level data for every county in the United States between 1977 and 1996.  they found that "casinos increased crime after a lag of 3 to 4 years.  On average, the overall crime index in casino counties was 8 percent higher in 1996 because of casino."  Click here to read Professor Grinols and Mustard's revised report dated February, 2004.  (http://www.terry.uga.edu/~dmustard/casinos.pdf)

Excerpts from: Ten Things the Gaming Industry Won't Tell You

Brian O'Keefe
July 17, 2000

1. "You can't win..."
Everyone knows the house has an advantage. But most casino patrons don't realize just how heavily the odds are stacked against them. Take keno, in which you pick a string of numbers, hoping to match them to what the casino randomly generates. The house advantage is at least 25%, increasing with the more numbers you pick, says John Alcamo, author of Casino Gambling Behind the Tables. The odds of hitting, say, the 10 spot, a string of 10 numbers are nine million to one. (Getting killed by fireworks is nine times more likely.) Despite those odds, a $2 bet usually pays off at only $50,000 to $200,000.

Slot machines are popular because they offer a shot at a big jackpot for little investment. For example, $3 gets you a chance at the Megabucks jackpot, which links slot machines in Nevada and builds like a state lottery from a base of $5 million. The odds of winning? Nearly 17 million to one. You have a better chance of being killed by an asteroid striking Earth.

OK, so maybe you won't win the jackpot in slots. But surely you have a decent shot of walking out ahead of the game, right? Don't count on it. "Slot machines are the biggest moneymakers in the casino," Alcamo says. "That should tell the players something." Experts like him never play games that give the house more than a 2% advantage, and quarter slots put the
advantage at about 8%.

2. "...and if you do, we might not pay you."
While on vacation in Lake Tahoe in September 1996, Cengiz Sengel stopped to show his wife the lights of Reno, Nev. They walked into the Silver Legacy casino, got a $20 bag of quarters and headed straight to one of the slot machines. A few pulls later, three jackpot symbols popped up in the windows. The Sengels jumped up and down, hugging each other as fellow slot players rushed over to congratulate them. They had just won nearly $1.8 million. Or so they thought. A supervisor, claiming the machine had malfunctioned, denied the Sengels the payout. The couple appealed all the way to the state Supreme Court, which this June ruled against them.

Effie Freeman can sympathize. In 1995, she put $3 into a slot machine at the now defunct Splash Casino in Tunica, Miss., and was stunned to see red, white and blue ducks line up, signaling a $1.7 million jackpot. But the state gaming commission ruled that it didn't count because the machine had gone into "tilt" mode.

If you don't think it happens in a Ho-Chunk casino, think again.  This news article by Beth Williams appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal on January 29, 2002:   It was a high unlike any Troy Westphal had ever known. At the Ho-Chunk Casino in Baraboo, he watched three red sevens line up on the slot machine's reels as the jackpot lights flashed.
indentThe jackpot was $1.179 million.
indent"Inside, my stomach just kept going up, and I grabbed the machine really tight," the Winneconne man said. "I almost fainted."
indentHe said his high was quickly replaced by a low unlike any he had experienced. Casino officials told him the machine malfunctioned and they wouldn't pay.
indent"To get up on that high and then be let down that hard is awful," he said. "I know I won."
indentBut casino general manager Daniel Brown said it only appeared as if Westphal had won.
indentWestphal acknowledged that about 3:30 a.m. Sunday, just before the jackpot lights lit up, the machine had locked up. But technicians reset the machine and told him to continue playing, meaning the machine was working properly, he said.
indentWestphal has filed a complaint with the casino. A spokeswoman said Brown has written Westphal a letter explaining the malfunction and the casino's decision.
indentWestphal can file a complaint with the state Division of Gaming, but the state can't make the casino pay, said Linda Minash, director of Indian gaming and regulatory compliance.
indentCasinos don't usually pay for a slot machine's mistakes, Minash said.
indent"On every machine I've seen there's a little disclaimer that the casino is not responsible for the malfunction of the machine," she said.

Todd Westergard, a Nevada regulator, says that such decisions, no matter how cruel they sound, are only fair. It's the computers inside the machines, not what pops up in the window, that determine winners, he says, and in the Sengels' case the computer connection was disrupted.  But gamblers don't care about the technical explanations. "The main thing is that we got those three symbols," says Cengiz Sengel. "They found a way not to pay us."

3. "We promise more than we deliver."
Twenty-seven years ago only seven states had lotteries, and only Nevada allowed casinos. Now 37 states have lotteries, and 28 have casinos (including Indian gaming). Why have policy makers and the public allowed gambling to flourish? One reason is the notion that it creates jobs and commerce.

But research suggests the downside far outweighs the benefits. "The economy as a whole would be much better off had we not allowed [casino gaming] to expand," says Earl Grinols, a University of Illinois economics professor.Figuring in a broad range of factors "crime, lost productivity, bankruptcy, social services and regulatory costs" Grinols determined that each pathological and problem gambler costs the public $13,600 per year; the total works out to $180 per citizen. That more than negates the industry's economic benefit, which Grinols estimates at $50 to $70 per citizen.

Much of the income generated by casinos simply gets diverted from otherlocal businesses, critics say. Atlantic City's a good example. Within four years of the casinos' arrival, a third of the city's retail businesses had closed. Meanwhile, crime soared.

What about lotteries? That money surely is a windfall for causes like public education, right? Not always. A study by St. Mary's College professors Patrick Pierce and Donald Miller found that while lotteries provide an initial boost to education budgets, the increases quickly taper off. In fact, the professors say, states with lotteries eventually provide less support for public education per capita than do states without them. 

4. "We know everything about you."
Casinos have developed sophisticated techniques for targeting and profiling repeat gamblers. Harrah's Entertainment has led the way, hiring marketing experts and a Harvard professor. In 1997, the company began gathering details on players when it rolled out its Total Gold frequent-gambler cards (now called Total Rewards) and has built a database of 19 million customers. Players insert the cards into slot machines or hand them to casino supervisors when they play table games. The cards are marketed as a prestige item that helps players accumulate comps such as free rooms, meals and show tickets. But the real purpose is to track the habits of each customer and tailor a marketing plan that will keep players coming. 
If you're a big bettor, you'll find that casinos know all kinds of creepy information "just enough to push your buttons. "You put your slot card in the machine and bing, it's ticking off in the office," says syndicated columnist Mark Pilarski, who spent 18 years working at casinos. "If you're a good customer, they send down a hostess, she pats you on your back and offers you dinner. She gets information on you. Next time you come in they ask about your wife or dog by name. They know your anniversary. They'll definitely send you a card for your birthday."

5. "We're a lousy investment."
If you don't want to bet on their games, maybe wagering on casino stocks is a good option. Think again. Though gaming stocks are up 16% this year, most haven't provided a great return over the long haul. The sector's up only  22% over the past five years, compared with the S&P 500's 171% increase.