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Boston College professor discusses casino gaming
Presenting a different perspective on the issue of controlled casino gaming that will be posed to voters again in the upcoming election, island and business leaders gathered today to hear from Father Richard McGowan, a Catholic priest, who discussed the economic benefits and strategies of legalized casino gaming.
An Associate Professor of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and a Research Associate at Harvard Medical's Division of Addictions, Father Richard McGowan had the opportunity to study the data of all the lottery sales in the US and thus has studied both social, economic, and political costs of gambling as well as the social economic and political benefits of gambling. After looking at all the statistics he believes that gambling can have a lot of positive effects only if done right and done through effective regulations.
He began with what he believes is the greatest social ill of gambling. "Clearly by the way the addiction issue is the issue what happens when people become addicted to gambling," McGowan said.
According to his studies the addiction to gambling can increase crime divorce and bankruptcy rates.
However he also notes that only 1.4% of people get addicted to gambling while the remaining 98.6% can actually enjoy gambling without getting addicted. He says that in the mainland us although very few people will say that they're outright in support of gambling most say their not entirely against it either.
"Most people will say it's up to the individual and as long as you do an activity and it doesn't hurt another person you should be able to do it that's a typical American way of looking at things," he said. Father McGowan also compared Guam to Atlantic City in the 1970's. In that comparison there were a lot of problems in the beginning for example a decrease in population as people moved away, housing and retail development moving to the suburbs and a host of other problems from speculation to corruption. Eventually the government stepped up it's regulations resulting in ten billion in private capital investment, 45,000 jobs in the industry, $5 billion in annual revenues, $400 million in annual state taxes, 16,000 hotel rooms, New roadways, airport improvements, new schools malls and parks.
Although he admits that there are social downsides to gambling Father Mcgowan says that the formula for it's success is effective regulation effective public planning, Free market forces, and realistic expectations
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