Massachusetts study says casinos didn’t drive higher crime rates

A study commissioned by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission concluded that the presence of casinos in Springfield and Everett, Massachusetts, didn’t result in higher violent crime rates in either area.

The director of research and responsible gaming for the commission had hoped to prove — or disprove — theories that the presence of casinos resulted in higher crime rates.

“Academic literature is split with as many studies showing there is an increase in crime due to gambling as those that show absolutely no impact of levels of crime and gambling,” Mark Vander Linden said last week before introducing Christopher Bruce, a crime analysis consultant and assistant professor of criminal justice at Husson University in Bangor, Maine.

Vander Linden said Bruce studied crime rates in 11 communities surrounding MGM Springfield in western Massachusetts and 21 communities around Encore Boston Harbor in suburban Boston.

“After being open 18 months at MGM with three months of COVID-19-related closures, then eight months of operation at Encore Boston Harbor, followed by three months of closures, then three months of reopening,” the study concluded there was no direct link between the casinos and violent crime, although there were slight rises in drunken driving and some minor offenses, Vander Linden said.

Commissioners generally were pleased.

“What I thought was the big takeaway was the very positive way you framed (the data) with the additional guests to Springfield and the additional foot traffic,” said Commission Chairwoman Cathy Judd-Stein. “With that comes activity and economic-driving benefits,” but minimal crime.

“I don’t know how many public meetings we had when we were deciding who would get the license that we heard from the public about safety,” Commissioner Gayle Cameron said. “Will it be safe in downtown Springfield? That was the constant comment that we heard. I just look at this as a very good news report for many reasons and I’m very grateful for the (casino) executives that are here, just taking the interest and they’ve done this from Day One. You can’t always tell from the numbers.”

Bruce made a detailed study of criminal incidents, noting them on maps of areas surrounding Springfield and Everett.

In several cases, Bruce said the findings were inconclusive as to whether the casinos had any bearing on the data collected.

For example, drunken-driving instances in Springfield reached 312 during the study’s time frame, with a predictive rate of incidents between 133 and 254. But Bruce said there was no way of knowing whether the higher number of incidences was the result of the casino joining the downtown neighborhood in August 2018 or whether increased enforcement efforts by police departments resulted in the increase.

Of the 312 drunken driving incidents, Bruce said, only seven of those arrested named MGM Springfield as the last place they drank an alcoholic beverage.

Bruce said there also were higher incidences of shoplifting and thefts from nearby cars and homes — not break-ins, but thieves taking things from unlocked cars or open garages.

The uptick in shoplifting could be the result of new stores and more commerce in the neighborhoods around the casino and the fact that an estimated 1 million more people are visiting Springfield as a result of the casino, he said.

Bruce said there also were increases in panhandling, “suspicious activity” on roads leading into the city and purse-snatchings.

In the Boston area between July 2019 and February 2020 — the resort opened in June 2019 — there were higher instances of thefts from vehicles in Boston and Everett. More statutory rapes were reported in three neighborhoods that Bruce did not attribute to the casino, more arrests for prostitution, which Bruce said was due to a greater crackdown by police, and an increase in assault, drug trafficking and fraud near the Melrose-Wakefield Hospital.

Bruce said that there were generally more police calls in the neighborhoods north and east of the casino and that all other crimes, calls and traffic collisions were around expected norms.

Analysts who study crime rates and casino trends say comparisons between Massachusetts and Nevada are useless because the markets are so different.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission oversees a market with three casino licensees; in Las Vegas, there are more than 430 nonrestricted licensees, those with casinos and hotels, in the state and more than 200 in Clark County.

There also are nearly 2,400 restricted licenses issued to bars, taverns, convenience stores, grocery stores and restaurants that have no table games and 15 or fewer slot machines.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.