Revisiting “The Menace of Competition and Gambling Deregulation”

This article continues the analysis of gambling deregulation from an institutional economics perspective done in the article “The Menace of Competition and Gambling Deregulation” by Atkinson, Nichols, and Oleson. John R. Commons’ concept of the “menace of competition” is used to analyze how gambling industry laws have been gradually changed in the last decades of the twentieth century, which, in turn, helps the industry to grow throughout the United States. Since the article’s publication, much has changed with gambling in the US. Sports gambling has grown dramatically since it was allowed beyond Nevada beginning in 2018, and casinos and lotteries have somewhat peaked. They are not growing as in the past, and horse racing gambling has shrunk dramatically. Charitable gaming has also suffered, and dog racing has almost disappeared. Additionally, online gambling has made it easier than ever before to make wagers and play lotteries and slots. As gambling has proliferated across the US since the late 1970s, some of the newly legal forms of gambling have cannibalized much of the revenues of other ones that have been around longer. Not only can Commons’ writings still be used to assess recent developments, but also those of Paul A. Baran and Paul M. Sweezey and Thorstein Veblen.