A lot of people still connect Casino industry with many things in the society and especially with the rising crimes and other activities which are not all the time true. In this connection, an official yearlong study was done in Massachusetts, which has found that there is “no significant casual relationship” between a rise in certain crimes and police activities and the opening of the Plain ridge Park Casino in the town of Plainville. Gambling and Crime are not always inter related regardless of the people try to link them and oppose casino industry and the opening of new casinos in the town. However, this yearlong study was done by the Public Safety Impact Report which was presented to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) this week that shows no increase in crime in the areas surrounding Plain ridge Park Casino.
This is the only slots-only facility and Massachusetts’ first and only casino to open to date and in addition to this two full-scale resort-style casinos, the MGM Springfield and Wynn Boston Harbor are currently under construction and are scheduled to open in 2018 and 2019.
Crime analyst and MGC consultant Christopher Bruce said of his findings, that “In the first year of operation at Plain ridge Park Casino, analysis indicates that most changes in public safety data are proportional with non-gambling facilities of similar size,” “I hope this public safety analysis continues to provide important information that local police departments will deem helpful and can utilize to assist with the development of effective data-driven strategies.”
Bruce, who has also worked for the Cambridge Police Department further said, “It has produced some increases in traffic-related activity, the types of increases that you would expect with any major facility of that size and drawing that much traffic to the region, but there’s been no indication so far that it’s caused an increase in any crimes or other detrimental social harms in the area. ” “A large increase in burglary in North Attleborough was attributed to two local serial offenders, both heroin addicts, with no casino-related motives.”
Bruce also said that additional studies will be completed for a comparison after 2017 which would also be done around the same time the $950 million MGM Springfield from MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts Limited’s $2.1 billion Wynn Boston Harbour developments open.
