GAMBLING: IS CRIME NO LONGER A PROBLEM?
“The [gambling] industry has to admit where it has problems and try to come up with solutions to those problems.” So says Frank Fahrenkopf, president of the American Gaming Association (Conner 1995, 74). Unfortunately, rather than admitting anything, the gambling industry prefers to aggressively market itself as being free from one of its’ biggest problems: crime. Instead of spending money to “try to come up with solutions” to gambling’s problem as Mr. Fahrenkopf admonishes his industry to do, the American Gaming Association wants to “get the funding in place so that [it] can fulfill [its] principal responsibilities.” Which, according to its president (Mr. Fahrenkopf) include “make[ing] sure that some of the old stereotypes of the industry such as gangsters being involved in the business aren’t still out there with the decision-makers” (Conner 1995, 12).
Asserting that gambling no longer has any connection with “organized crime” is only half of the denial. The gaming industry also argues that legalized gambling does not create increased street crime. In late 1993, a Harrahs’ representative “said in a televised National Press Club interview, that crime connected with casinos was in the distant past” (Zabilka 1995). Harrahs’ even conducted its own research which, not surprisingly, “suggests a link between casinos and reductions in crime rates” (Harrahs, 1995).
Perhaps the gambling industry would not have to exert so much effort in disclaiming any connection with crime, organized or not, if there were not some truth to the allegations. This paper will show the truth that gambling interests would rather deny: there are reasons to associate gambling, not just casino gambling, but all types, with increased crime rates and/or “organized crime.” We will briefly look at the connections between crime and several different types of gambling to show just how widespread the correlation between …
