Every economy in the world is made up of various different industries, all working away to bring in money for themselves, and by default, for their country.
Countries all have their own ways of making money, sometimes based on where they are and what they can produce, and other times these industries are built specifically to boost a country’s financial capabilities – the UK did this with the finance industry, for example.
All countries though have a tourism industry, however big or small it might be, and increasing tourism has often been a tactic used by governments to boost their economies.
The way money moves around means that any cash flowing into a country from tourism makes its way into that country’s system one way or another.
Whether it be by creating jobs to support the influx of tourists (hotels, restaurants, transport, etc.) or by tourists buying goods and services already established in that country and therefore increasing demand and therefore taxable income, tourism is a financial boon for every country.
The gambling industry is big business the world over too, although some people have far easier access to it than others.
It might be illegal where you live, but not in a neighbouring land, or perhaps you live rurally where a casino would not survive, but you are only a few hours from a big city which several exciting casinos.
In either of these circumstances you might decide to make the trip to visit a casino, and that would make you either an international or domestic casino tourist.
The gambling industry and the tourism industry are a very good match, and this combination has been used many times over to change the face of a city or small country, increasing their fortunes and giving gambling enthusiasts a holiday destination they look forward to visiting.
Why Does Casino Tourism Exist?
We are quite lucky in the UK, because the laws on gambling are fairly relaxed and there are enough people here on this relatively small island to support a casino in every city and many larger towns too.
For many of us, there might even be a local casino we can visit if we fancy a night of roulette or blackjack etc.
In lots of other places though, the population is much more spread out, so the nearest casino might be hundreds of miles away, or worse still, casinos might not even be legal.
This is why casino tourism is a ‘thing’, albeit not something we in the UK are overly familiar with.
People who don’t have easy access to a casino might go on holiday for a week to a casino hotel or resort, with the gambling aspect being the main reason for their visit.
This brings huge opportunities to the area, with other smaller businesses popping up to benefit from the increased footfall.
Wherever you find a few casinos you will likely find plenty of bars and restaurants very close by, not to mention shops selling touristy merchandise like t-shirts, baseball caps and the like, street entertainers, nightclubs, and all sorts of other weird and wonderful small enterprises.
These all make the area more appealing to tourists so it becomes something of a virtuous circle.
Casino Resorts and Hotels
These don’t really exist in the UK for the reasons stated above, but in some of the worlds hottest gambling spots they are the norm.
The concept first cropped up in Vegas in the early 1940’s, when the El Rancho Vegas Resort opened, a casino with 63 bungalow hotel rooms available to rent on the same plot.
Things have got severely out of hand since then though, with casino resorts being some of the craziest and most extravagant places you can stay anywhere in the world.
Visitors check in and find their room somewhere away from the hustle and bustle of the casino floor, then have various restaurants, bars, perhaps a spa and a gym, and even entertainment venues all located within the same building.
The casino itself would usually be located on the ground floor in order to also welcome players not staying at the hotel.
The buildings are usually full of interesting museum pieces like guitars played by famous musicians, local history pieces, and you’ll often see huge cars and things dotted around the place, often winnable.
This creates a casino resort that tourists never have to leave, giving them plenty to do alongside gambling, but with the casino being the lynchpin that holds everything together.
It’s a win win because the tourist has everything they could need at their fingertips if they never want to leave, but also have the freedom to wander off and explore if they choose; while the company is likely to keep more of the tourist’s spend for themselves rather than sharing it with other local hospitality businesses.
And where there is one casino resort and hotel, you will usually find another.
A whole week at the same casino might get a bit stale, so many people stay at their favourite but have days out to others that are nearby, and thus casino tourism destinations like Vegas and Macau are born.
How Gambling Laws Impact Casino Tourism: The Downfall of Atlantic City
One casino destination for casino tourists that had an almighty fall from grace was poor old Atlantic City.
The very reason many of the world’s casino hot spots exist is because they are providing something that players can’t easily get where they live – scarcity creates opportunity and all that.
Atlantic City was the first place in America outside of Nevada where casino gambling was made legal, all the way back in 1976 when the state of New Jersey had a referendum vote and signed it off.
Atlantic City had already been a tourist destination from the 1920s, but after the second world war it fell into decline, and by the 1960s it was becoming a ghost town. So this second chance at stardom was just the shot in the arm the town needed and the casinos began to open, with Resorts being the first in 1978.
Others followed, and AC soon became a beacon for gamblers in the North East since it was so close to New York and Philadelphia, and its’ only rival (Vegas) was 2,562 miles away on the opposite side of the country.
Atlantic City enjoyed more than 20 years of ever increasing success, with gambling revenues and tourism numbers going up and up year after year, but in 2007, things began to go the other way.
This was partly due to Vegas having a resurgence and partly due to the global recession, but something else that really didn’t help was the relaxing of gambling laws elsewhere.
The small neighbouring state of Delawere was already allowing gambling in the mid 90’s, and the first 2 casinos in the state of Connecticut opened in 1996. Being on the other side of New York to AC, this gave people from further afield good casino options closer to home.
Next, Pennsylvania and New York – 2 of New Jersey’s other neighbouring states – relaxed their gambling laws in 2004 and 2012 respectively, and allowed casino gaming to take place.
Over time, this gave more and more people for whom Atlantic City had previously been the nearest casino destination, other options, and between 1999 and 2014 six casinos closed their doors for good.
There are still around 8 or 9 good casino resort options in the area, but they are looking tired and unloved apart from the odd one or two, and out of season it can feel like a ghost town once more, especially once you get into more residential areas, where unemployment is high and the streets look rundown.
AC made the mistake of relying too heavily on the casino industry to support their economy, so when gambling laws started to ease off in other states, they had nothing to fall back on. They bet the lot on the casino industry, but their winning streak eventually ran out.
Purpose Built Casino Destinations
There are many other examples of a town or city being set up as a place for people to come and gamble, in order to attract tourists and allow that town or city to grow and thrive.
Some places end up being quite good destinations for casino fans naturally, like London, but in other places, gambling is used strategically in order to boost visitor numbers and inject money into the area.
Monte Carlo, Monaco
Monaco is one of the oldest examples of this, with the father of modern day roulette, Francois Blanc, chiefly responsible.
Blanc had already made the German city of Baden Baden a destination for casino players before laws there began to change, and so he uprooted and headed to Monaco, a principality in the South of France, next to the border with Italy.
The royal family was struggling financially, so Blanc agreed a deal with them where they would allow gambling, and he would build the biggest and best casino in the world.
This was in 1863, and the Casino Monte Carlo is still there today, and is still the main attraction in this tiny place. In fact, locals aren’t even allowed into the casino, so tourists make up 100% of the visitors there.
Monaco is now one of the most affluent places in the world, largely thanks to this change in direction back in 1863, with at least 30% of residents being millionaires!
It’s a beautiful place to visit, but the casino is a huge draw, and in 2019 over 350,000 tourists travelled to the tiny principality, which, looked at relative to the number of full time resident, makes Monaco the most visited place in Western Europe with 9.3 tourists per resident.
There are only 4 casinos there in all, but Monaco is the 2nd smallest country in the whole world, being smaller than Central Park in New York – only about 60% of the size in fact.
With that in mind, the fact that is draws in so many tourists and can support 4 casinos is pretty amazing.
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Las Vegas is perhaps the obvious example for Westerners. It didn’t even officially exist until 1905, got it’s first casino in the 1930s, but didn’t become a gambling destination of any sort until the late 40s.
This was made possible in part due to Nevada being the only state in the whole of America where casinos were legal, but it was also well located for workers building the Hoover Damn from 1931 onwards, and Nellis Airforce base which was built in 1941.
This influx of people needing a way to unwind in their free time saw gambling start to emerge as an industry in Las Vegas, with 4 or 5 casinos opening their doors as well as an increase in hotels to support tourists.
This is also around the time ‘the strip’ came into existence, when Guy McAfee created the unestablished township of Paradise, Nevada as a tax haven, and the mob (the mafia) also got involved.
So Vegas becoming Vegas may have been something of an accident caused by circumstance at first, but once the idea had taken root, the city took it a ran, blowing away the competition from the other big Nevada gambling town, Reno.
So much development went on over the next few decades that Las Vegas ended up with a population that almost doubled between 1985 and 1995, exploding from 186,380 to 368,360 – a 97.6% increase over 10 years!
Today, there are over 650,000 people living there.
This is all because of casino tourism, with those casinos needing staff, the tourists needing hotels and places to eat etc, and shops being able to sell more every day goods since there were more people around to buy them.
Even in the 1950s there were 8 million tourists visiting Vegas, but these days it welcomes around 30 million tourists a year, and it’s safe to say that the majority of them are attracted by the bright lights of the likes of the Bellagio and the MGM Grand.
But those are just 2 of the 140+ casinos located in Las Vegas as of 2022, and Clark County (the county within which Vegas is situated) has over 225.
Macau, China
Although casinos are not allowed in China, Macau (which is an ex Portuguese colony) operates under different rules.
It is now a special administrative region of China, much like Hong Kong, except in Macau, all forms of gambling have been allowed since 1937. This was done to increase Macau’s revenues since the place is essentially made up of two islands with very little land mass joined by a few bridges, so industry options were slim.
This meant that gambling was already a well established and very important part of Macau’s economy, making up about 20%-25% of it in the 1990s.
Up until this point the rights to all gambling activities had been run by a single company who were granted a government issued monopoly license, and there were 9 casinos in operation attracting tourists from all over China, but a huge number from nearby Hong Kong.
This monopoly system ended in 2001 though, meaning that anyone could buy up real estate and open a casino on the islands, and since Macau was already a magnet for casino fans lots of Western casino companies got stuck in.
This was when Macau really turned into a contender for the title of ‘Gambling Capital of the World’, with casinos and hotels popping up all over the place. There were 41 casinos in Macau as of 2020, and tourism leapt from around 9 million annually in 2000 to almost 40 million in 2019.
The two tiny islands also surpassed the gambling revenue of the whole of Nevada in 2010, meaning that more money is spent in Macau’s casinos than anywhere else in the world, even Las Vegas.