A rendering of the proposed Cedar Crossing Casino & Entertainment Center is seen inset on a large map of the northwest quadrant along the Cedar Rapids during a site site in northwest Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Monday, September 16, 2024. The proposed casino would be built on the former Copper’s Mill site on the northwest quadrant along the Cedar River. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)

Don't expect a casino to improve Cedar Rapids. It won't. Here are two parts of the story you need to know — and haven't heard from casino promoters.

First, casinos provide no economic boost in good times and in bad times they make things worse.

A study from 1996-2004 compared retail sales growth in midsize Iowa cities with and without casinos. Most cities experienced steady growth across the study period. But the cities that added a casino then fell to the bottom of the growth list. You can read the study here: https://www.stoppredatorygambling.org/impact-of-casinos-on-retail-sales/

I earned a PhD in public policy by expanding that Iowa research into a national study. The study compared Census Bureau retail sales and employment growth for local economies with and without casinos across the U.S. from 2002 to 2017. You can read it here: https://doi.org/10.18122/td.1939.boisestate

The research shows areas with casinos do not experience higher retail sales growth. Just the opposite: during the Great Recession casino areas’ growth rates were two to three times lower than non-casino areas. Employment growth was lower in casino areas across the study period, as well.

Why? Outside of Las Vegas, casino revenue comes predominantly from local gamblers. Casinos don't bring money into local economies; they suck money out.

And if you think nearby casinos are draining Cedar Rapids now, that's nothing like the drain when a casino is conveniently local. The National Gambling Impact Study Commission found addiction rates double within 50 miles of a casino.

Which leads to the second part of the story: gambling depends on addiction for profitability.

Most casino revenue comes from people who meet addiction criteria: 70%, found a 2024 Connecticut study, confirming the 72% found in a 2011 Canadian study. MIT sociologist Natasha Schull's book, “Addiction by Design,” details how slot machines driving casino revenues are designed to be as addictive as possible, to get gamblers to play "to extinction," as one slot maker put it.

What government or nonprofit would take money from an activity knowing that 70 percent of it comes from exploiting the addiction of others in the community?

Gambling doesn't survive on entertainment. Schull estimates that "responsible gamblers" provide only 4% of gambling revenue. Addiction is how casinos make money. That's gambling's dirty little secret.

And addiction brings costs for crime, corruption, bankruptcy, broken families, embezzlement and suicide, costs that outweigh casino benefits by more than three to one, according to the most exhaustive study to date, Gambling in America: Costs and Benefits, by University of Illinois Economist Earl Grinols.

Expect more Cedar Rapids consultant studies. Be skeptical when they ignore the research cited here while skirting key issues like:

• The percent of casino revenue to be drawn from within a 50-mile radius.
• Related impacts on business revenues and employment within a 50-mile radius.
• The likely number of addicts expected, compared to the likely number of casino employees.
• Detailed projections of community social costs.

A Cedar Rapids casino will entice several thousand citizens in the Cedar Rapids area into addiction and exploit them "to extinction." The money will come at the expense of measurable social deterioration in the Cedar Rapids area and negative impacts on the local economy and employment.

Jonathan Krutz earned his MBA from the University of Iowa in 1993. He is emeritus professor at the Boise State University College of Business and Economics and president of the national Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation.