White collar crimes and casino gambling: looking for empirical links to forgery, embezzlement, and fraud

This study investigates the alleged link between casino gambling and arrests for the commission of the “white collar” crimes of forgery, fraud, and embezzlement. The rapid expansion of casino gaming venues in recent years has been said to have increased the incidence of white collar crimes by casino...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Crime, law, and social change law, and social change, 2008-06, Vol.49 (5), p.333-347
Main Author: Albanese, Jay S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arrests
Casinos
Consumer credit
Consumer spending
Correlation analysis
Crime
Criminal investigations
Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Embezzlement
Forgery
Fraud
Gambling
Gaming machines
Law and Criminology
Legalized gambling
Political Science
Popularity
Public prosecutors
Social Sciences
Studies
Trends
White collar crime
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Summary:This study investigates the alleged link between casino gambling and arrests for the commission of the “white collar” crimes of forgery, fraud, and embezzlement. The rapid expansion of casino gaming venues in recent years has been said to have increased the incidence of white collar crimes by casino customers who get themselves in financial trouble by overspending at casinos (given the median age of 47 for casino patrons and that 41% hold white collar jobs). This study investigates this question by using several kinds of data to examine arrest and offender trends, using a follow-up period of up to 10 years to assess long-term impacts. The results indicate that, comparing pre- and post-casino average annual arrests for embezzlement, forgery, and fraud, trends show a general decrease in arrests in casino jurisdictions, although embezzlement arrests rose in Connecticut and in nationwide statistics. An assessment of the reasons offered from interviews with people convicted of embezzlement and fraud are presented to examine the extent to which gambling is a causal factor.
ISSN:0925-4994
1573-0751
DOI:10.1007/s10611-008-9113-9