Discover how gaming entertainment converges with the hospitality industry in terms of its economical and social impact

Economy Impact

Positive

1. Attract different tourists from all around the world.

Macau is a pretty small city in China.  However, because it is famous for casinos and is known as the second Las Vegas, many tourists come here to have the experience.  The casinos make Macau a more famous place, without it, the city would not have as much tourists.  

2. Create many jobs

Since there will be many tourists coming into the city, there is a higher demand for more restaurants and hotel rooms, therefore, they need people to work in those positions.  Attract different types of travelers

3. Increase Government Revenue

Governments earn revenue from gambling in several ways. The first way is through the taxation of gambling venues/operations. In most countries these taxation rates tend to be much higher than exist for other industries. Governments earn gambling revenue is to become directly involved in the provision of gambling and directly receive its revenue. Also, it earns gambling revenue by taxation of gambling winnings by consumers, although this constitutes a very small revenue source.

4. Positive impacts on other businesses

Many casinos offer hotels, restaurants, and entertainment in addition to their traditional gambling activities. These associated amenities could potentially compete with similar businesses in the local area. On the other hand, it is possible that local hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues might benefit from the ‘overflow’ and/or in situations where the casino does not offer these associated amenities. Positive impacts on other businesses have been most commonly reported with ‘destination casinos’ that draw their patronage from outside the immediate area (i.e., bringing in a true influx of wealth), require overnight stays, and are located in tourist areas offering other entertainment and sightseeing opportunities. Specific sectors that benefit most consistently are hotels, restaurants, lounges, and other types of entertainment. It helps create more jobs.

Negative

1. Easily affected by other countries

As the whole economic of a country will rely on tourism industry, when there is financial turmoil, the number of tourists decreased and it will lead to government tax revenue decreased. And at the same time, unemployment rate increased because of the closing down of some poorly performed casino.

2. Large investment of foreign company

As most of the gaming facilities may investment by foreign, large capital outflow in countries. And therefore, the countries will become a tool for foreign to capture the income from traveler. Thus, little economy gain in the countries.

 

Social Impact

Positive

1. Better the Infrastructure

The construction of a new gambling venue (e.g., casino) adds to the physical assets and wealth of the local community. This is especially true if this new venue is associated with infrastructure upgrades (e.g., roads, electrical, sewage) to accommodate the new facility, and if the new building and infrastructure upgrades are financed by out-of-jurisdiction investors. Increased infrastructure value can also occur when a new gambling venue stimulates the construction of complementary businesses (e.g., hotels, restaurants) to take advantage of the increased patronage of the area.

2. Better Social Welfare

When the government increase revenue derived from gambling would be used for the enhancement of public services (e.g., health, education, social security). Indeed, these ‘public benefits’ are often touted by governments as the main justification for the introduction or expansion of gambling. In addition, in many jurisdictions certain forms of gambling (typically raffles and bingo) are delivered by charitable/community organizations and/or gambling revenues are earmarked for these groups, the revenues of which are then used for the benefit of the local community. However, it is also sometimes the case that government gambling revenue is used to avoid raising taxes, reduce government debt, or to maintain rather than enhance existing services.

3. Cultural communication

As there will be more tourists visit the host countries, resident can interact with traveler as thus it encourage a better social and cultural communication

4. Reputation of the countries

As the country will have more travelers, it will increase its reputation around the world. Also it encourage a positive competition with other countries so that it improves the service quality (e.g. Macau has a good reputation in gambling in Asian)

Negative

1. Problems arise from Gambling

Depending on the country, the year, and the assessment instrument, the past year population prevalence of problem gambling ranges from 0.4% to 7.5%. There are both monetary and social/nonmonetary costs associated with problem gambling.

The monetary costs include money spent on a) treatment and prevention; b) policing, prosecution, incarceration, and probation for gambling-related crime; c) child welfare involvement for gambling-related family problems; and d) unemployment and welfare payments and lost productivity because of gambling-related work problems. However, because only the minority of problem gamblers seek or receive treatment, and only a minority typically have police/child welfare/employment involvement, the bulk of the impacts tend to be social/nonmonetary in nature.

The social impacts include things such as mental health problems, suicide, family/relationship problems, divorce, and the potential for intergenerational modeling of excessive gambling. They were also observed to not be sleeping as well as they should and their quality and quantity of real-life socialization and academic work saw a sharp decrease.

2. Increase in the number of bankruptcies

There is a relatively strong relationship between bankruptcies and gambling availability makes theoretical sense, considering that financial difficulties are typically the most common problem reported by problem gamblers.

3. Crime rate increases

It is no doubt that the legalization of gambling will reduce the rate of illegal gambling. But on the other way will increase the number of problem gamblers like robbery, kidnapping and also money lauding.

Also certain forms of gambling offer increased opportunities for illegal activity to occur (i.e., passing counterfeit money, money laundering, loan-sharking, cheating-at-play, race fixing, theft, fraud) (Barthe & Stitt, 2007).  Furthermore, there is will be more cases related to alcohol-related crime (i.e., assault, driving under the influence) and/or disproportionately attract a clientele with criminal tendencies. As a result, the government has to bear higher social cost arising from higher crime rate.

4. Lower working incentive

As more people will be working in the gaming industry and in the worst case, put gambling as their full-time job, so that people will have less incentive to work in other industry. It will hinder the development of the whole countries.

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