The Politics of Casino Gambling: A British Retrospective

1
The Politics of Casino Gambling A British
Retrospective

• Marc W. Etches
• Centre for the Study of Gambling
• University of Salford

2
Introduction

• Key lessons from Gambling Act 2005 that may
  assist future policy-making regarding casino
  gambling
• Historical and political context to the British
  experience with focus on casinos highlighting
  nature of the politics in relation to casino
  gambling in liberal democracies
• The paper is presented in three parts
• Casino regulation in Britain from the 1960s until
  various attempts at deregulation in the 1990s
• Process of legislative review 2000-08
• Nature of casino politics, role of policy
  entrepreneurs in political conflict that arises
  in casino policy-making

3
Relevance to Social Policy?

• Understanding the politics of casino gambling and
  its impact on public policy-making is important
  for those concerned with good social policy
• Casinos are considered by some to be harmful to
  communities in causing crime, business failure
  and problem gambling, on the other hand there are
  those who contend that casinos benefit
  communities by supplying jobs, inward investment
  and economic improvement
• Such polarisation of perspective has
  characterised the public debate around casinos in
  Britain, as elsewhere, over the last decade

4
Legislative Review

• Gambling Review Report (Budd) 1999-2001
• A Safe Bet For Success March 2002
• Culture Select Committee July 2002
• Joint Statement from DCMS ODPM August 2003
• Gambling Bill July November 2003
• Joint (scrutiny) Committee April July 2004
• Second Reading of Gambling Bill November 2004
• National Policy Statement December 2004
• Gambling Act April 2005 (September 2007)
• Casino Advisory Panel 2005-07
• Parliamentary Orders March 2007 and March 2008

5
Public Policy and Casinos

• National Lottery (1994) - casino industry,
  benefited from incremental deregulation
  disturbing neither principle of unstimulated
  demand nor high bar of market entry
• Philosophy underpinning modernising approach to
  legislative reform - remove impediments to
  competition keeping regulatory control of
  potentially harmful activity
• Eadington (2007) warns it is always politically
  difficult to justify consumer benefit as the
  primary reason for legalisation or liberalisation
  of gambling
• Certainly the retreat to the prescriptive
  licensing regime that has finally emerged for the
  casino sector, is in stark contrast to the
  market-led approach originally advocated

6
Politics of Casino Gambling

• Morality politics - readily engages widespread
  public debate on the basis of core values, moral
  principles and religion, utilising symbols that
  evoke strong emotional responses (Collins, 2003
  Pierce and Miller, 2004)
• Prevailing sense, a democratic consensus, that
  there should not be too much gambling too easily
  available (Collins, 2003)
• Principle issue around which opponents to
  gambling legalisation or liberalisation coalesce
  is problem gambling this is the issue that
  dominates any political debate about gambling
  generally

7
Problem Gambling

• Term is problematic - uncertainty as to precise
  nature consequences of PG plus relatively small
  proportion of adult populations (LaPlante et al.,
  2008 May-Chahal et al., 2007 Reith, 2006
  Wardle et al., 2007)
• Potency of issue lies in capability to erode
  libertarian argument - individuals ought to be
  free to do that which they choose for themselves
  (including making bad choices) so long as no harm
  is caused to others
• Problem gambling offers a powerful political
  symbol that resonates easily with the
  electorate

8
Public Opinion

• Gambling generally and casinos specifically have
  the capacity to arouse wide-spread public unease
• Democratic governments pursue policies that court
  positive public opinion, or at least try to avoid
  pursuing policies that are likely to generate
  negative public opinion
• Popper (1963) - public opinion may be influenced
  by but is neither the result of nor under the
  control of free and critical discussion between
  varieties of competing views
• Asserts that the anonymity of public opinion and
  the potential to orchestrate public opinion can
  induce an irresponsible form of power that
  endangers democracy generally and individual
  freedom specifically

9
Policy Entrepreneurs

• Poppers view that in Britain there is a moral
  sensitivity to injustice that out-ranks truth or
  wisdom in determining public opinion may be so,
  however a serious issue for governments more
  generally is to recognise who is motivated to
  participate in the political conflict that will
  arise around casino policy-making who are the
  likely policy entrepreneurs and who will seek to
  orchestrate public opinion?
• Policy entrepreneurs seek to shape and frame
  policy-making in ways that satisfy their goals
• Achieving a successful policy outcome often
  depends on bringing allies in and/or keeping
  opponents out of the scope of political conflict.
  

10
Policy Entrepreneurs

• Casino businesses
• Competing gambling businesses
• Other service sector businesses (Pierce Miller,
  2004)
• Local authorities regeneration tourism
• Moral entrepreneurs (Miers, 2003)
• Academic and research entrepreneurs
• Regulators
• Legislators, political advisers civil servants

11
Britain in Gambling Frenzy 5 October 2004
Hundreds Of Thousands Face Gambling
Addiction! 15 October 2004
Betraying the Values My Party Stood For Roy
Hattersley (former Deputy Leader, Labour
Party) 15 October 2004
Gambling Boom That No One Wants 18 October 2004
Gambling With Our Futures 15 October 2004
Astonishing Blair Claim Casinos Will Cure
Poverty 25 October 2004
Gambling Bill To Open Floodgates 19 October
2004
Vulgar Riches Dazzles Nanny Jowell 20 October
2004
Gambling Can Lead To Child Abuse 5 November
2004
Ethics? Blair is happy to gamble them all
away! 7 November 2004
The Great Gambling Climbdown 9 November 2004
12
Arena of Conflict

• Characterised by arguments about the
  socio-economic costs and benefits
• what may or may not count as a social cost
  (external) versus a cost borne entirely by the
  individual or household (internal)
• what counts as a transfer and what counts as
  displacement
• accounting for consumer surplus
• the calculation of crime rates
• defining problem gambling and its co-morbidity
  with other problematic behaviour
• multi-causality of negative and positive economic
  and social outcomes of casino development
• the opportunity costs of legalisation or expansion

13
Regulatory Capture

• Russell (2005) warns that it is naïve to suppose
  that legislators or anyone involved with the
  formulation and implementation of public policy
  will not be subject to their own self-interest.
• Political elites have strong policy preferences,
  desires for re-election, higher or more powerful
  office, or more budgets. (Miller Pierce, 2004)
• The regulator has acted as a key policy
  entrepreneur in promoting the market-led approach
  to the regulation of gambling in the UK subject
  only to the three objectives of keeping crime
  out, ensuring the industry is conducted honestly,
  and protecting children and other vulnerable
  people.

14
Future Policy-Making

• Formulate and articulate clear, unambiguous
  policy objectives, economic and social
• what is to be the purpose of legalisation or
  liberalisation of commercial gambling?
• what is likely to play out over a significant
  period of time?
• Be fully and expertly informed about the nature
  of commercial gambling generally and, if it is to
  involve casinos, casino gambling specifically
• An international perspective may be necessary,
  not simply one that relies on national experience

15
Future Policy-Making

• Take full and proper account of existing policy
  context, connect satisfactorily with other policy
  objectives such as tax and tourism
• Understand and cope with the true nature and
  characteristics of casino politics, be able to
  weigh carefully the motivations of different
  policy entrepreneurs, and distinguish between
  overstated advocacy and peer-reviewed scientific
  empirical evidence
• Result will be sufficient self-confidence to be
  guided by free and critical discussion rather
  than coerced by anonymous public opinion,
  especially when it is delivered via media outlets
  who themselves may have their own political and
  commercial agendas