Win Lose or Draw: Gambling with America’s Small Towns

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Report analyses the impacts of gambling and lays out the implications of gambling activity for statutes and local communities.

Authors purport that developing local policy in small towns for gambling initiatives will and has proven to be difficult. With revenues from gambling serving as significant tools of economic development for many rural communities, local and state officials must recognize both the value and volatility of such an activity in communities for public health alongside development. Because of timing of publication wherein few states had lengthy experience in gambling as an economic development tool, report points to broad reaching implications for how state policy can influence the success of rural community gambling initiatives: (1) regulation, (2) revenue collection and distribution, (3)Economic Development Assistance, (4)Social Impacts.

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