Opinion: Casinos provide boost in employment to rural areas

My work on the economic impact of casinos, and important and meaningful research by others, has found that the magnitude of casinos’ economic and social effects often depends on the location and scale of the development. In particular, empirical analysis indicates that casinos often lead to a meaningful increase in employment in less populated areas, but have a negligible employment benefit in larger cities.

Moreover, my employment study did not find strong evidence to suggest that observed increases in jobs are typically offset by a loss of jobs in related businesses. Estimates even suggested that some outside businesses in the hotel and motel industry may see an increase in employment, which could indicate that they benefit from complementary demand, perhaps through increased tourism.