IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ris/albaec/2014_002.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do Urban Casinos Affect Nearby Neighborhoods? Evidence from Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Huang, Haifang

    (University of Alberta, Department of Economics)

  • Humphreys, Brad

    (West Virginia University)

  • Zhou, Li

    (University of Alberta, Department of Economics)

Abstract

Access to legal gambling has expanded in Canada. Casinos can generate both positive and negative local impacts. We analyze the effect of new urban Canadian casinos on nearby neighborhoods in terms of population growth and composition, and housing market outcomes based on more than 40 urban casinos opened in Canada between 1986 and 2007. We define neighborhoods based on spatial proximity, and analyze impacts on changes in census tract profiles. We find no evidence that casino openings affect population growth or population composition by age, gender and martial status, or home ownership rates, and evidence that casino openings reduced unemployment in surrounding areas, and are correlated with faster growth in household income. We also find evidence of negative effects on changes in housing values and rents despite the faster income growth. The findings suggest a double-edged nature to casino openings: positive for employment and income growth but negative for residential amenities.

Suggested Citation

  • Huang, Haifang & Humphreys, Brad & Zhou, Li, 2014. "Do Urban Casinos Affect Nearby Neighborhoods? Evidence from Canada," Working Papers 2014-2, University of Alberta, Department of Economics, revised 01 Mar 2014.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:albaec:2014_002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://sites.ualberta.ca/~econwps/2014/wp2014-02.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Georgios Kavetsos, 2014. "Form or function?: the effect of new sports stadia on property prices in London," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 177(1), pages 169-190, January.
    2. Michael Wenz, 2007. "The Impact of Casino Gambling on Housing Markets: A Hedonic Approach," Journal of Gambling Business and Economics, University of Buckingham Press, vol. 1(2), pages 101-120, June.
    3. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Georgios, Kavetsos, 2010. "Form or Function? The Impact of New Football Stadia on Property Prices in London," MPRA Paper 25003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Brad R. Humphreys & Brian P. Soebbing, 2014. "Access to Legal Gambling and the Incidence of Crime: Evidence from Alberta," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 98-120, March.
    5. Earl L. Grinols & David B. Mustard, 2006. "Casinos, Crime, and Community Costs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(1), pages 28-45, February.
    6. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    7. William N. Evans & Julie H. Topoleski, 2002. "The Social and Economic Impact of Native American Casinos," NBER Working Papers 9198, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Michael Wenz, 2008. "Matching estimation, casino gambling and the quality of life," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 42(1), pages 235-249, March.
    9. Humphreys, Brad R. & Marchand, Joseph, 2013. "New casinos and local labor markets: Evidence from Canada," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 151-160.
    10. Jonathan Wiley & Douglas Walker, 2011. "Casino Revenues and Retail Property Values: The Detroit Case," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 99-114, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Scavette, Adam, 2023. "The economic impact of a casino monopoly: Evidence from Atlantic City," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    2. Zachary T. Keeler & Heather M. Stephens & Brad R. Humphreys, 2021. "The Amenity Value of Sports Facilities: Evidence From the Staples Center in Los Angeles," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(7), pages 799-822, October.
    3. Erasmo Giambona & Rafael P. Ribas, 2023. "The external cost of prostitution: Evidence from shutting down red light districts in the Netherlands," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(3), pages 630-654, May.
    4. Huang, Haifang & Humphreys, Brad & Zhou, Li, 2014. "Urban Casinos and Local Housing Markets: Evidence from the US," Working Papers 2014-4, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huang, Haifang & Humphreys, Brad & Zhou, Li, 2014. "Urban Casinos and Local Housing Markets: Evidence from the US," Working Papers 2014-4, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    2. Karl Geisler & Mark Nichols, 2016. "Riverboat casino gambling impacts on employment and income in host and surrounding counties," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 56(1), pages 101-123, January.
    3. Nichols, Mark W. & Tosun, Mehmet Serkan, 2017. "The impact of legalized casino gambling on crime," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 1-15.
    4. Michael Wenz, 2014. "Valuing Casinos as a Local Amenity," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 136-158, March.
    5. Brad R. Humphreys & Brian P. Soebbing, 2014. "Access to Legal Gambling and the Incidence of Crime: Evidence from Alberta," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 98-120, March.
    6. Humphreys, Brad R. & Marchand, Joseph, 2013. "New casinos and local labor markets: Evidence from Canada," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 151-160.
    7. Siew Hoon Lim & Lei Zhang, 2017. "Does Casino Development Have a Positive Effect on Economic Growth?," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 409-434, September.
    8. Zhao, Qingbin & Li, Guoqiang & Gu, Xinhua & Lei, Chun Kwok, 2021. "Inequality hikes, saving surges, and housing bubbles," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 349-363.
    9. Daniel M. Hungerman, 2014. "Do Religious Proscriptions Matter?: Evidence from a Theory-Based Test," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(4), pages 1053-1093.
    10. Chi Liao, 2023. "Risk‐taking begets risk‐taking: Evidence from casino openings and investor portfolios," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 58(1), pages 143-165, February.
    11. Melisa Bubonya & David P. Byrne, 2020. "Supplying Slot Machines to the Poor," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 86(3), pages 1081-1109, January.
    12. Gabriel Ahlfeldt & Pantelis Koutroumpis & Tommaso Valletti, 2017. "Speed 2.0: Evaluating Access to Universal Digital Highways," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 586-625.
    13. William S. Reece, 2010. "Casinos, Hotels, And Crime," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(2), pages 145-161, April.
    14. Brad R. Humphreys & Adam Nowak, 2015. "Professional Sports Facilities, Teams and Property Values: Evidence from Seattle's Key Arena," Working Papers 15-06, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    15. Gabriel M. Ahlfeldt & Nancy Holman, 2018. "Distinctively Different: A New Approach to Valuing Architectural Amenities," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(608), pages 1-33, February.
    16. Dolan, Paul & Kavetsos, Georgios & Krekel, Christian & Mavridis, Dimitris & Metcalfe, Robert & Senik, Claudia & Szymanski, Stefan & Ziebarth, Nicolas R., 2019. "Quantifying the intangible impact of the Olympics using subjective well-being data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 1-1.
    17. Gu, Xinhua & Li, Guoqiang & Chang, Xiao & Guo, Haizhen, 2017. "Casino tourism, economic inequality, and housing bubbles," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 253-263.
    18. Badji, Samia & Black, Nicole & Johnston, David W., 2023. "Economic, Health and Behavioural Consequences of Greater Gambling Availability," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    19. Hyclak, Thomas, 2011. "Casinos and campus crime," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 112(1), pages 31-33, July.
    20. Paul Dolan & Georgios Kavetsos & Christian Krekel & Dimitris Mavridis & Robert Metcalfe & Claudia Senik & Stefan Szymanski & Nicolas R. Ziebarth, 2016. "The Host with the Most? The Effects of the Olympic Games on Happiness," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1599, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    casino; economic impact; amenities; employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:albaec:2014_002. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joseph Marchand (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deualca.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.