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Gambling's good for government, study finds
$3-billion annual net gain: Academics can't quantify suffering that can result
Eric Beauchesne
Southam News
OTTAWA - Gambling appears to be good for Canada, in purely economic terms at least, says a new study by the Canadian Tax Foundation.
The foundation says cash benefits of legalized gambling to society and to government outweigh the dollar costs, including those due to increased crime, health-care problems, job-related losses and family break-ups.
The net benefit is more than $3-billion a year, of which more than three-quarters flows to governments, says the report prepared by two University of Montreal academics for the non-profit independent tax research organization.
The 84-page report -- Gambling and Governments in Canada, 1969-1998: How Much? Who Plays? What Payoff? -- also notes that as legalized gambling on lotteries, casinos and video lottery terminals has soared, so have the net benefits.
The net benefit to society in 1995, the last year for which there was enough data to weigh all the cost and benefits, was $3.044-billion, up from $526-million in 1990 before the explosion of legalized gambling in Canada, according to the report.
"The benefits were greater in the more permissive gambling environment of 1995 than they were in 1990," the study notes, adding that "may surprise" some.
But it's strictly a dollars-and-cents comparison.
"Left aside are other considerations, such as the morality of gambling, the reliance on luck instead of hard work and the luxury of buying a daydream for a dollar or two," the tax foundation notes.
Nor does it try to put a dollar value on the pain and suffering that results from marriage breakups, ill health or suicides that might occur as a result of gambling, noted David Perry, an analyst with the tax foundation.
"It's an amoral study," he said.
"Implicit in the cost-benefit analysis is the fact that gambling is going to occur anyway," Mr. Perry said, recalling the days before legalized lotteries, casinos and video terminals when Canadians gambled illegally, such as on the Irish Sweepstakes.
Or as the study claims "before gambling was partially legalized in 1969, Canada was an illegal gambling society."
"If the money is going to be spent anyway, it's better that it not go offshore or that it not be diverted to the criminal element," Mr. Perry said. "And there's some assurance with legalized gambling that it's also fair."
But the study really isn't an endorsement of gambling either, Mr. Perry added.
"If you read between the lines, it paints a very dismal picture of tired old men buying lottery tickets and going to the casinos in an attempt to try to get ahead for the first time in their lives," he said. "The figures show that the percentage of income spent is higher at the bottom of the earnings ladder, and that it progressively goes down as incomes go up."
$3-billion annual net gain: Academics can't quantify suffering that can result
Eric Beauchesne
Southam News
OTTAWA - Gambling appears to be good for Canada, in purely economic terms at least, says a new study by the Canadian Tax Foundation.
The foundation says cash benefits of legalized gambling to society and to government outweigh the dollar costs, including those due to increased crime, health-care problems, job-related losses and family break-ups.
The net benefit is more than $3-billion a year, of which more than three-quarters flows to governments, says the report prepared by two University of Montreal academics for the non-profit independent tax research organization.
The 84-page report -- Gambling and Governments in Canada, 1969-1998: How Much? Who Plays? What Payoff? -- also notes that as legalized gambling on lotteries, casinos and video lottery terminals has soared, so have the net benefits.
The net benefit to society in 1995, the last year for which there was enough data to weigh all the cost and benefits, was $3.044-billion, up from $526-million in 1990 before the explosion of legalized gambling in Canada, according to the report.
"The benefits were greater in the more permissive gambling environment of 1995 than they were in 1990," the study notes, adding that "may surprise" some.
But it's strictly a dollars-and-cents comparison.
"Left aside are other considerations, such as the morality of gambling, the reliance on luck instead of hard work and the luxury of buying a daydream for a dollar or two," the tax foundation notes.
Nor does it try to put a dollar value on the pain and suffering that results from marriage breakups, ill health or suicides that might occur as a result of gambling, noted David Perry, an analyst with the tax foundation.
"It's an amoral study," he said.
"Implicit in the cost-benefit analysis is the fact that gambling is going to occur anyway," Mr. Perry said, recalling the days before legalized lotteries, casinos and video terminals when Canadians gambled illegally, such as on the Irish Sweepstakes.
Or as the study claims "before gambling was partially legalized in 1969, Canada was an illegal gambling society."
"If the money is going to be spent anyway, it's better that it not go offshore or that it not be diverted to the criminal element," Mr. Perry said. "And there's some assurance with legalized gambling that it's also fair."
But the study really isn't an endorsement of gambling either, Mr. Perry added.
"If you read between the lines, it paints a very dismal picture of tired old men buying lottery tickets and going to the casinos in an attempt to try to get ahead for the first time in their lives," he said. "The figures show that the percentage of income spent is higher at the bottom of the earnings ladder, and that it progressively goes down as incomes go up."