Over the past decade, there has been an increase of economic expansion owed to the establishment of legalized gambling in the United States, this set apart from Las Vegas and Atlantic City. The reason for this economic expansion is due to the increase in revenues needed within the states and cities. Traditionally, the property tax has been the foundation for education aid in communities across the country. While it tends to be the more predictable source of revenue, it has led to wide variations in revenue across municipalities and district innovations (Sack 2005, 58). The case of legalized gambling and other sorts of gambling has led to the question whether gambling or lotteries are the ticket for economic freedom or development of new revenues. This paper will take on the responsibility of dealing with the question in hand, as a result will emphasis the meaning of economic development and apply some sort of reasonable informational applicable cost-benefit evaluation of casino gambling.

Several states in recent years have turned to legalize gambling to secure more revenues. This in turn is able to provide for the demand of more public services in the United States. State and local governments are faced with the growing demand of public interest groups who favor to decrease the reliance on wage, property, and sales taxes, also the federal government is also scrutinized for relying on personal and corporate income taxes as the major source of its revenue. For the states a new source of funding is some sort of gambling. Gambling in some form is now found in every state but Hawaii and Utah (Berman 2000, 325). Nevada, which has been legalized since 1931, derives about half of its revenues from taxes and license fees from gambling. Atlantic City, which opened in 1978 produces about a million a month on its first year of existence (Berman 2000, 325).