Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-5-2025

Department

Economics

Department

Equine Industry

Abstract

This paper continues the analysis and discussion of gambling deregulation from an institutional economics perspective done in the article “The Menace of Competition and Gambling Deregulation” by Atkinson, Nichols, and Oleson (2000). John R. Commons’ concept of the “menace of competition” is used to analyze how gambling industry regulations and laws are gradually changed in the last decades of the 20th Century, and this in turn helps the industry to grow and prosper throughout the US. Since the publication of this paper, much has changed in the gambling industry in the US. Sports gambling has grown dramatically since it has been allowed beyond the state of Nevada beginning in 2018, casino gambling and lotteries have somewhat peaked and are not growing as rapidly in the past, and horse racing has shrunk dramatically.. Charitable gaming has also suffered a decline, and dog racing has almost completely 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 legal ones that have been around longer, such as horse racing and charitable gambling. State tax revenues from gambling also appear to have plateaued. With such intense competition and with disposable personal income, a key to gambling expenditures, not growing as much this century as the second half of the last century, an industry shakeout and merger wave are occurring with various calls for less regulation and lower taxation as the gambling industry slowly becomes more concentrated.

Comments

Pre-print submission

ORCID

0000-0003-2453-1407

Download

Share

COinS