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Former San Jose police officer, Johnny Venzon
Jr., was imprisoned for stealing from
people on his own beat while in uniform. Venzon,
who blamed his actions on a gambling
addiction, often burglarized homes and then
investigated the crimes. (San Francisco
Chronicle, 2/25/99)
Daniel Blank confessed to stealing over $100,000
and killing six Louisiana residents
from October 1996 to July 1997. Blank’s
motivation for his brutality was to obtain cash
to support almost daily trips to video poker
halls and casinos. Sometimes Blank headed
for casinos right after committing the crimes.
([New Orleans] Times-Picayune, 1/28/99)
5. Casino-Induced Changes in Population
Composition: Gambling, along with
gamblingrelated
industries such as hotels and restaurants, is
one of the few growth industries with a high
demand
for unskilled labor. An increase in demand for
unskilled and lower-income employees may alter
the
composition of the underlying labor force and
residents toward those who are more apt to
engage in
criminal activity.
13
B. Effects Across Types of Crime
These seven crime-affecting mechanisms should
have different impacts across crimes. For
example,
improvements in the legal sector reduce property
crime more than violent crime (Gould, Weinberg,
and Mustard, 2002). Although murder has been
tied to casino-related activities as described
above,
the connection between casinos and murder is
statistically more difficult to detect because
it is rare
in comparison to the other crimes and because
other causes predominate. For this reason we
expect
casinos to contribute less to the overall
explanation of murder rates.
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