Democratic Mechanisms and other Determinants of State Gaming Expansion

Session Title

Session 3-3-C: Policy Impact Discussions

Presentation Type

Event

Location

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada

Start Date

30-5-2019 1:45 PM

End Date

30-5-2019 3:10 PM

Disciplines

Political Science

Abstract

When support for casino gaming is high across political lines, why do only about half of all states have some form of legalized commercial casino gaming? The absence of such policies in the remaining states may be due to the absence of democratic mechanisms. As citizens become more accepting of legalized gambling over time, I hypothesize there should be an increased likelihood of legal gambling expansion in states that allow for citizen initiatives and referendums for statutes and constitutional amendments. To test the relationship, I use a Cox Duration Model to measure the difference in gaming expansions based on the presence of such direct and indirect democratic mechanisms. I also test the for the impact of other potential determinants of expanding gaming laws, such as financial health and economic competition.

Keywords

Policy Diffusion, Gaming Laws, Gaming Expansion

Author Bios

Kim Manh is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Houston, where he earned his master’s degree in 2017. He was an Eadington Fellow at the Center for Gaming Research at UNLV and a Presidential Endowed Scholar at Texas A&M University. He has presented gaming research papers at the Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting as well as the Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association.

Funding Sources

None

Competing Interests

None

Comments

Implications of the Presentation:

Studying the determinants of state gaming expansion may lead to insight regarding the implementation of legal sports betting and daily fantasy. Successfully modeling the process would yield predictive power that could help allocate resources to environments most likely to succeed in adopting new policies.

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May 30th, 1:45 PM May 30th, 3:10 PM

Democratic Mechanisms and other Determinants of State Gaming Expansion

Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada

When support for casino gaming is high across political lines, why do only about half of all states have some form of legalized commercial casino gaming? The absence of such policies in the remaining states may be due to the absence of democratic mechanisms. As citizens become more accepting of legalized gambling over time, I hypothesize there should be an increased likelihood of legal gambling expansion in states that allow for citizen initiatives and referendums for statutes and constitutional amendments. To test the relationship, I use a Cox Duration Model to measure the difference in gaming expansions based on the presence of such direct and indirect democratic mechanisms. I also test the for the impact of other potential determinants of expanding gaming laws, such as financial health and economic competition.