1. Tales of Woe


Radcliff, KY – Sandra Kay Olson, a 61-year-old grandmother, was fired in November 2000 from her job as a bookkeeper with a Louisville printing company after $180,000 was discovered missing. While authorities investigated the case, Olson went to work for a company that makes lawn care equipment. She was indicted in August 2002 for 187 felony counts for the missing $180,000. Six months later, she was again indicted for embezzling $129,000 from the lawn care company. And during that investigation, authorities discovered she had stolen $21,000 from Ivy Tech State College in Indiana during the late 1980s and was trying to pay the money back.


What happened to all the money? A family member told a judge during a bond hearing that all the money “that they know of was given to Caesar’s,” a riverboat casino in Indiana. Records from the casino show she spent tens of thousands of dollars on slot machines. “Gambling is just a driving force behind embezzlements now,” said Allan Cobb, an assistant Jefferson County commonwealth's attorney. A disproportionate number of cases, he said, “'have some link back to gambling.” If convicted, Olson faces a minimum 30-years in jail and a $1 million fine. (Louisville Courier-Journal)


Queens, NY – In 1989, Maria Villa, a bookkeeper for a Long Island elevator company, was convicted of embezzling $100,000 from her employer. Inexplicably, the company agreed to rehire her after her conviction. Last February, Villa, 49, was again charged with embezzlement. This time she was accused of stealing more than $2.3 million – anywhere from $2000 to $23,000 a week for several years – and losing it all on weekend trips to Atlantic City.


Family members say the casinos, where Villa lost more than $20,000 at the card tables and slot machines during each visit, put her up in suites and chauffeured her around in limos. She was what the casinos call “a whale,” a high roller who was given exclusive privileges because of the huge amount of money she wagered and lost – a low-rent Bill Bennett. The casinos, like her family, were oblivious to her growing addiction. “We thought she was just lucky,” says a niece. “But she has a gambling problem.” If convicted, she faces 25 years in prison. (New York Post)

Don’t take it from us. Listen to the experts:

“Get it straight…there is no reason on earth for any of you to expect for more than one second that just because there are people here [at casinos], they’re going to run into your store, or restaurant, or bar.”

Steve Wynn, Las Vegas Casino Developer

“People will spend a tremendous amount of money in casinos, money that they would normally spend on buying a refrigerator or a new car. Local businesses will suffer because they lose customer dollars to the casinos.”

Donald Trump, casino owner

According to Baylor University Economist Dr. Earl Grinols - one of the few independent analysts of the casino industry - casinos absorb existing entertainment, restaurant and hotel business, and take dollars that would otherwise be available to other local retail businesses. The result is elimination of jobs in the casino trade area, as well as a reduction of governmental revenue from the sales, employment and property taxes paid by local businesses. Casinos don’t increase business revenue in any sector other than the gambling sector.

Lost revenue is not the only damage done to local business. Dr. Grinols calls casino impact on local job markets “Jobless Growthlessness.” He documents, after studying the economic impacts of gambling for 15 years, that casino employment displaces local economy jobs without improving community resident standard of living. He also clearly shows that businesses lose in general merchandise and miscellaneous retail and wholesale trade when casinos come to a community. For every $1,000 in casino revenue, businesses within a five mile radius of casinos lose $142; businesses within a 5 - 10 mile radius lose $217. When considering losses of businesses up to 30 miles away, the total is $381 for every $1000 in casino revenue.