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

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Abstract

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.

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Notes

  1. Chicagoland (i.e., Chicago, northern Indiana) and Memphis (Tunica and Lula, Mississippi) could not be included in the analysis due to both missing and wildly fluctuating arrest data for embezzlement, forgery, and fraud. In Chicago, arrest data was not reported to the FBI in 1990 and 1994, and several other years reported arrests fluctuating up and down by a factor of six in a single year. In Memphis, arrest data was not reported in 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, and arrest totals in 1996 do not reconcile with reported arrest data before or since. These anomalies suggest changes in local recording–keeping procedures, and the year-to-year data do not appear reliable enough to analyze.

  2. The issue of organized crime has been considered elsewhere, although a detailed empirical study in multiple jurisdictions has yet to be conducted. See Jay Albanese [5]; Franco Piscitelli and Jay Albanese [29].

  3. In some states, embezzlement is charged as a form or theft or fraud, so it is not used as a separate category of offense, as it is in most jurisdictions.

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  1. Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, Virginia Commonwealth University, 923 West Franklin Street, Richmond, VA, 23284-2028, USA

    Jay S. Albanese

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Correspondence to Jay S. Albanese.

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Albanese, J.S. White collar crimes and casino gambling: looking for empirical links to forgery, embezzlement, and fraud. Crime Law Soc Change 49, 333–347 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-008-9113-9

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