The gambling industry in the United States has experienced significant growth over the past thirty years. As the industry continues to expand, legislators must consider the pros and cons that accompany the industry expansion. This paper examines if the social and economic benefits from the casino industry outweigh the social and economic costs of gambling with a specific focus on the effects on unemployment. The gaming industry creates tax revenue, employment, and entertainment for the community. But it also has a regressive tax structure and creates problems like pathological gambling. This paper analyzes this tradeoff and uses Ordinary Least Squares regression to determine if the presence of a casino has any statistical significance on the unemployment rate in counties of Iowa. The regression finds statistically insignificant results and can neither confirm nor challenge the claim that unemployment is lower in counties with a casino
