Don't Gamble with Irving's Future.

Say NO to a
Casino.

Problems Associated with Gambling

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Problem Gambling

Approximately 1% of the US population has a gambling addiction (a number that looks like 2.5 million US adults). Up to 8 million of the population may struggle with mild or moderate gambling problems (Yale Medicine, 2025). If Irving is going to host this population, it will need to increase its capabilities to provide support to these individuals through hotlines, counseling opportunities, and addiction recovery programs. It is unlikely that the Las Vegas Sands Corp. will foot the bill for these.

Individuals who struggle to regulate their gambling account for only 25% of all gamblers but 40-60% of slot machine revenue, and as much as 30-50% of all gambling revenue. This is the population whose economic status is most likely to be impacted by legalized and local gambling (Georgia State University, 2025; Council on Casinos, 2025).

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Gambling and Increase in Suicide Rates

Among suicide cases in the US, 0.44 are gambling related, but that number jumps almost 9x in the state of Nevada with a rate of 4%. Oklahoma has more than double the national average number of gambling related suicides (van der Maas et al., 2024).

The overall numbers are low, but why would Irving want to bet even a single life on increasing tax revenues?

For individuals who struggle with major depressive disorder, obesity, or alcohol abuse, adding in the comorbidity of a gambling addiction increases the likelihood of suicidal ideation and/or suicidal attempts (Jolly et al., 2021).

Meta analysis reveals a positive association between problem gambling and self harm (Gray et al., 2020).

 

Economic Impacts of Gambling on Society

A 2020 study in Sweden identified the societal costs of problem gambling to equal the equivalent of 1.67 billion dollars (1.18 exchange rate of 2018) or 0.3% of the country’s GDP. Lost productivity due to unemployment accounted for 59% of that cost, while intangible costs such as reported reduced quality of life accounted for 28%. Overall, “the societal costs were more than twice as high as the tax revenue from gambling in 2018” (Hofmarcher, et al., 2020).

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A 2023 French study on legal gambling found that draw lotteries and scratch cards had a positive social surplus, but the social surplus was negative in all scenarios for poker and sports betting (Miéra et al., 2023).

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No individual struggles in a vacuum. Each person is part of the community and what impacts one has a widespread effect on families and neighborhoods.

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Legalized Gambling Lowers Quality of Life

Determined by a general population panel and a group of experts who work with gamblers, a quality of life scale found that problem gamblers experience an effective enjoyment reduction of 4 years over every 10 year lifespan . This relationship held true even for low-

risk (1.4 years/ten year lifespan) and moderate-risk gamblers (2.9 years over 10 year lifespan). This puts problem gambling in the same category of quality of life reduction as a severe alcohol abuse disorder (Browne et al., 2023).

 

Legalized Gambling Directly Causes Property Crime and Violent Crime

Grinols and Mustard (2006) is the most rigorous study of the impact of casinos on crime. It studies a 19-year period in the US when the number of states that had casinos expanded from 1 state (Nevada) to 29 states, making it relevant to Texas's situation. They found casinos directly caused 8.6% of property crime and 12.5% of violent crime in counties with casinos, including increases in assault, rape, robbery, larceny, burglary, and auto theft. Moreover, they also find increases in crime in neighboring counties – so what happened in those casinos did not stay in those casinos.

 

The authors use cutting-edge statistical methods, which compare counties that got casinos to non-casino counties with similar crime trends before the casinos were built (while also controlling for a wide range of other factors that could falsely attribute the rise in crime to casinos). This approach distinguishes between correlation and causation by comparing actual outcomes against what would have happened without casinos, ruling out alternative explanations like economically struggling areas choosing to build casinos. The casinos truly did cause increases in crime.

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It would be shocking if the Las Vegas Sands Corp. could prove that legalized gambling could in any way improve the current statistics in Irving, which are already superior to those of other US cities with legalized gambling (City Data, 2023).​

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Additional Impacts

While casino gambling only became legal in Pennsylvania within recent memory (2004 with the first casino opening in 2010), it has quickly led to results that Irving residents might find concerning. 

• Pennsylvania casinos now report the second highest gross gaming revenues (behind Nevada) in the US (Statista Research Department, 2024).

• Significant increase in calls to the statewide helpline for gambling, see chart below (Hakas, 2025).

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• This increase in problematic gambling is growing across the US. In 2021, calls to the National Problem Gambling Helpline increased by 43%, texts increased by 59.8% and chat volume increased by 84.1% (National Council on Problem Gambling, 2025).

 

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"Benefits" of Employment Opportunities for Residents

 

Sands has touted the potential benefits of the many jobs available within such a complex, but the outlook is not necessarily rosy for Irving residents.

 

Divorce in These Industries

Record divorce rates among gaming managers, employees, and bartenders.

Based on data aggregated by the US Census, Yau (2017) found that the highest divorce rates occur among “gaming managers and gaming service workers - 52.9% to 50.3%.” Bartenders were second at 52.7%. Other proposed jobs within Sands' plans include spas (massage therapists came in at number 6 at 47.8%) and entertainment (professional dancers number 10 at 46.8%).

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Substance Abuse

Among both accommodation and food service industry employees, illicit drug use and substance abuse have been recorded at rates significantly higher than other industries. Construction employees follow closely behind. See chart below (Bush & Lipari, 2015).

• The highest rates of past month illicit drug use were found in the accommodations and food services industry (19.1 percent).

• The workers in the accommodations and food services industry (16.9 percent) had the highest rates of past year substance use disorder.

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References

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Additional Resources

stoppredatorygambling.org

saynocasino.org/

texastaxpayers.com/gambling-with-texas-future/

 

Another community that objects to Sands building near them in Long Island:

nocasinonassau.org

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NY State Senators speaking during a Virtual Town Hall last year about the impact of a Casino in Manhattan

youtube.com/watch?v=yVC8hI4RvAA