Myth: Legalized gambling in Montana causes high crime rates
Pub Date: 1/1/2003
Fact: Crime rates are down in Montana even as gambling activity grows, and some jurisdictions with no gambling have higher crime rates.
A 1998 study commissioned by the state legislature and conducted under contract by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) at the University of Montana found no relationship between gambling and 13 kinds of crime including forgery, fraud, embezzlement, stolen property, family offenses, liquor offenses, disorderly conduct, illegal gambling, drug offenses, prostitution, sex offenses, arson, domestic abuse, motor vehicle theft, simple assault, aggravated assault, rape and murder.
That same study, however, speculated six types of crimes--burglary, robbery, larceny, driving under the influence, vandalism and weapons offenses--would increase as gambling activity grew.
That has not been the case.
In retrospect, since the 1998 study, crimes in those categories have actually decreased. South Dakota, which has legal gambling similar to Montana's in many respects, has similar crime rates. So do North Dakota, Idaho and Wyoming, which offer very little legal gambling.
Utah, one of two states with no legal gambling, has the highest crime rates of any state in the region.
Anomalies always occur when viewing a set of relatively short-term data. Idaho, as an example, saw a 34 percent increase in weapons offenses while its quite limited legal gaming activity declined four percent between 1990 and 2000. In Montana, while gambling activity increased 54 percent during that time, weapons offenses decreased 13 percent. Also, burglary declined 38 percent, larceny 22 percent, DUI 36 percent and vandalism 10 percent.
Source: Special Reports II, published and distributed to 180,000 households state-wide, winter 2002 by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701; Montana Gambling Study Commission report to the Montana Legislature, 1998.