Casino News: Study Finds No Crime & Casino Connection & More

This week’s casino news gets going with a long-running debate about whether casinos bring with them crime and drama—A newly-released study has shown that this belief is outdated. We’ll start there as we recap the headlines.

Study Finds No Correlation Between Crime And Casinos

One of the biggest arguments against expanded gambling has been debunked—But whether or not everyone buys in is another story.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission recently released their report that showed absolutely zero link between an increase in crime in an area after a casino has been added. The group had studied quite a bit of time surrounding when Springfield added their most recent MGM property.

The report went highlighted that there was no general consistency in an increase in crime, even though there could be a few small links to the casino. During October of 2020, the University of Massachusetts released a similar study to the exact same casino that proved exactly what this report proved: there was no correlation between gambling and crime.

Both reports chose this specific casino due to it being the first full-scale, Las Vegas style casino in the state since gambling was first legalized. Of course, a lot has changed in the casino industry over the years as maybe 50 years ago, they were run by mobsters but now they’re run by major corporations. They’re not a den for trouble like some feel they used to be.

Utah Teenager Has Created A Gender-Equal, Racially Diverse Deck Of Cards

16-year-old Maayan Segal has created a set of gender-equal, racially-diverse playing cards.

The teen believed that the deck of cards had some gender and racial inequality, and decided to make a change in the world. While all of the cards have their same ranks in their version, the names and pictures have been changed. All kings now go by the name of Monarchs, queens go by Dukes and Duchesses and Jacks go to Princes and Princesses. There are also two genders for each rank among the deck.

Gender neutral playing cards could be coming soon to a casino near you.

In the latest version of their deck, all cards now have different ethnicities. This project has caught the eye of quite a bit of people worldwide and it has received $170,000 in funding from their crowdfunding attempt. They could be coming to a casino near you.

Sportsbook Drops Legal Fight To Open On Capitol Hill

After a long battle back and forth, the entrepreneur who was hoping to open a bar and sportsbook just blocks away from the Capitol building will now be searching for a new location. There was immense pressure from the neighborhood to make sure that he doesn’t get to open it and eventually, they won out.

The sportsbook was supposed to be under the name Handle 19, but there was some concern as to having it so close to the political hot spot. They’ve tried to open in on Adams Morgan and then switched over to a vacant bar on Pennsylvania Avenue, but still no dice.

Gambling in Washington–especially in sports betting, is picking up steam, but is still not fully appreciated by the masses. The Washington Capitals and Wizards could see a sportsbook open in their stadium in the near future but there are those who are still against sports betting being in other parts of the area.