As casino gaming interests converge on Georgia as the next major market in the U.S. to embrace the activity, local and national skeptics and opponents are urging lawmakers to take a long hard look at whether or not legalizing casinos is the right decision for the Peach State.
Earlier this month, a study commissioned by Central Atlanta Progress, a business group, raised questions as to what the overall impacts of casinos in the downtown Atlanta area would be. Specifically, the report warned that while casinos would generate new revenues for the state, they would also bring additional costs for local communities along with undesirable social effects.
Major casino industry players like MGM Resorts and Caesars are eyeing Georgia as their next expansion project. After a similar push during the 2015-16 legislative session fell short, a fresh effort is underway to bring casinos to the Peach State as a means to drive economic development and job creation and to recapitalize the state’s flailing Hope scholarship program.
While the study estimates the Georgia gaming market to be in the neighborhood of $2.1 billion to $2.5 billion, it also reckons that the majority of this revenue would come from Georgians, not tourists, and that much of this spending would simply be diverted from other leisure activities. Further, it questions the notion that casinos are engines of economic growth and job creation – referring to them as “complementary attractions” that don’t generate much extra employment outside of the hospitality space.
Many groups outside the state are also urging Georgia politicians to take a look at the feasibility and unintended consequences of gaming legalization.
“If Georgia goes ahead and legalizes casino operations, they are for sure going to see some growth in revenues. But if we look into historical trends, we can see that that revenue is not going to be sustainable,” said Lucy Dadayan, a senior policy analyst at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, New York who has studied the impact of gambling revenues on state finances.
Specifically, she noted that lawmakers should consider the overall health of the U.S. casino industry outside of Las Vegas in their deliberations and examine the potential impact should neighboring states take a “copycat” approach and authorize gaming expansions of their own in coming years.
She also warned of that gambling legalization will only exacerbate economic inequality concerns.
“From the fiscal policy perspective, it’s not good a strategy because it puts a disproportionate share on certain taxpayers,” said Dadayan, who holds a neutral stance on the morals of gambling but takes issue with its economic and fiscal policy impacts. “Even though it’s considered voluntary, we know that a lot of times the people that gamble are low income. So it’s a fairness and equity issue.”
Dadayan and others further expressed concern that because Hope scholarship program, which was instituted in 1992 and is funded by the Georgia state lottery, awards scholarships to higher-performing students who come from upper and middle-class families, it effectively amounts to an upward redistribution of wealth.
“The literature review indicates this is not a fair fiscal policy,” she said. “You end up having poor people paying for lottery tickets, but you have the scholarships going to higher-income children.”
“[Casino interests] have created this false narrative that the Hope Scholarship Fund isn’t going to survive,” said Les Bernal, executive director of Stop Predatory Gambling, which opposes the expansion of government-sanctioned gambling across the board. “Studies show that this is almost the reverse American dream. You have poor families paying for education for upper and middle-class kids. It’s a massive redistribution of wealth as a government program.”
Bernal, citing a December poll in which 62 percent of New Jersey voters said that casino gambling has not been good for the state and 60 percent saying that it hasn’t been good for Atlantic City, asserted that states are beginning to realize that casino gambling is failing to deliver on its promises and that Georgia politicians will reach the same conclusion if they study the issue out.
“I think it’s inevitable that casinos will be defeated by Georgia,” said Bernal, who said there is a strong and diverse coalition in place on the ground to oppose legalization efforts. “No grassroots movement in Georgia to legalize gambling. It’s being driven by powerful interests – there’s nothing organic about this.”
