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Document Type

Article

Abstract

Legislators and community members alike have discussed the pros and cons of opening casinos. A frequently mentioned benefit of opening casinos is that they will bring jobs and thus reduce unemployment. Past studies have looked at the effect casinos have on unemployment over a period of a few years; this is the first study to look at data from over two decades (1990-2012). This study uses an ordinary least squares regression to look at the effect that 56 commercial casinos in the Midwestern United States have had on county unemployment. A significant correlation is found between the presence of a casino in a county and a lower unemployment rate. Other variables that have a statistically significant effect on the county unemployment rate are the state unemployment rate, the percentage of the population that is white, and real county per capita income.

Publication Date

Spring 2014

Journal Title

Major Themes in Economics

Volume

16

Issue

1

First Page

1

Last Page

14

Copyright

©2014 by Major Themes in Economics

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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