The Gaming industry contributed $240 billion to the US economy

According to the recent surveys, the gambling business of the US brings $240 billion to the country’s economy and provides 1.7 million people nationwide with job places in 2013. And this sum is equal to the budgets of the two states New York and Texas together.

This comprises $38 billion in federal, state and local taxes that the gambling paid the previous year in property and income taxes, gambling fees and so on. On the contrary to the surveys held before, this study revealed the influence tribal gambling and other Internet gaming have produced on the country’s economy.

The results of the survey were made known to public by the American Gaming Association at the news conference.

This week the group’s annual G2E Global Gaming Expo is taking place in Las Vegas at the Sands Expo and Convention Center.

The survey was held by Oxford Economics and it was the first of such types. They included in it the income of Native American casinos, commercial casinos, gaming equipment producers, spending from casino patrons at local shops, restaurants, hotels and other business: beginning with the wagers received from gamblers doubling down and ending with the expenses tourists spent on gas, food and tickets for the shows.

The study shows that casinos brought $81 billion of profit, and manufacturers of gaming equipment about $6 billion. The rest gave other economic activity.

Of the 1.7 million people employed by the gambling industry, more than 7 hundred thousand people worked in the gaming industry itself, others were employed in other economic activities of the industry.

Adam Sacks of Oxford Economics said, “Think about the problems which appear if gambling disappeared in Las Vegas. All the employees of the gaming industry would lose their jobs and would not get any income. How will this influence everything from bakeries to theatres and banks?”

As a result, the AGA’s Sara Rayme asked the lawmakers to accept more favorable gambling policy and friendlier taxes in particular.

The director of the Gaming Research Center at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas David Schwartz was not surprised with this numbers. He comments: “It’s certainly necessary to tell the whole truth.” And this truth includes not only the profit from casino gaming, but the whole gambling’s influence as hoteliers and retailers, and employers, and others.

Geoff Freeman, the Association’s president, admits that the things present in gaming industry at the moment won’t keep it prospering. Due to the increasing competition in the gambling industry, it requires constant changes to improve its efficiency and make the gaming providers introduce new technologies.

The gaming industry of Atlanta City has undergone serious problems this year, as four of its casinos were closed and 8 thousand people lost their jobs.

To complete the study, Oxford Economics took the regulatory information, used the data of federal labor statistics and made surveys in the casinos. This was the information about spending and profit that are directly or indirectly connected with the casinos.

CEO and chairman of MGM Resorts International James Murren informed the audience at the G2E conference that 70% of his Las Vegas company’s profit comes not from the gambling, but from other sources, for example, they got 7 million for the tickets that were sold for the shows performed in the casinos last year.

James Murren said, “Non-gambling sources have exploded for us.”