While Virginia’s legislators have held steady against the
growing tide of casinos spreading across the U.S., there are millions of
reasons to believe that it’s only a matter of time before the commonwealth
folds, even if legislative opposition is still strong.
According to the Washington Post, there are casinos in “various
forms” across 39 states in the U.S. Twenty-five years ago, casinos were limited
to New Jersey and Nevada. While these two cities remained the top earners in
2012, there were six
other cities/states that raked in over one billion dollars in annual revenue
during 2012. Even in the best of economic times, it’s difficult to look the
other way at the potential state income generated by the casino industry.
While moral
arguments have long been used to deflate attempts to legalize casinos in
Virginia, critics of legalizing casinos have also cited the correlation between
casinos, crime, substance abuse, and mental illness (i.e., the social
corruption argument). There appears to be statistically
significant evidence to prove such a correlation exists, albeit with a few
reservations for factors that are difficult to control for.
As more evidence accumulates from states where casinos are
legal, Virginia’s citizens and legislators can come to more informed conclusions
about what effect legalizing casinos could have in Virginia. If it can be shown
that casinos do not have a strong correlation to social corruption, the legalization
of casinos could be well on its way in the commonwealth.
Regardless, there are millions of reasons why legalizing
casinos in Virginia may go ahead anyways. While Virginia has shown a slow
but steady economic recovery following the last economic recession, casinos
will prove to be a very tempting source of revenue if and when a new economic
recession/depression sweeps through the state.
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