Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling

Purpose of Review This paper is a review of the recent academic literature on the socioeconomic impacts of gambling. The purpose is to provide a review of the most recent contributions to the growing literature regarding the economic and social impacts of gambling, with a focus on casinos. We divide our review into two sections: economic impacts and social impacts. Recent Findings Better data availability across a wider set of jurisdictions has resulted in improved research quality in recent contributions to this literature. Summary The most recent literature in this area suggests that casinos often have at least a modestly positive economic impact on their host economies. It is more difficult to measure the social impacts, and the net social impacts of casinos remain unclear. The variety of conclusions from recent research suggests that the industry’s impacts vary with characteristics of the hosting state, country, or regional economy.