In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

129 6 The Cultural Impacts of Casino Gambling in the Deep south d e n i s e v o n h e r r m a n n In a significant foray into the area of culture and gambling policy, authors William Thompson, Carl Lutrin, and asher Friedberg note that “[if] gaming companies seize upon a political opportunity to enter a market and they do not weigh the cultural match between the political forces in the society and gaming . . . the result may be new restrictions on the manner of doing business. . . . Gaming practitioners must realize that underlying cultural forces will surround their operations, and they should be ready to make adjustments.”1 This chapter contributes to the body of studies about gaming-related development in small communities and to the emerging study of gaming , impact, and quotidian life and identities. This chapter also seeks to expand the regional scope of these studies, which have an emphasis on the american West. By focusing attention on gaming in two Deep south states in the United states, in an effort to understand the effects of gaming upon that peculiar culture, my study adds to the ongoing development of the understanding of the interplay between casinos and the cultures of their host communities. Regional and cultural definitions of “the south” abound in the literature. several studies have shown that the southern portions of the United states, especially the area south of Virginia and Kentucky and east of Missouri and portions of Texas, are culturally distinct from other areas.2 John shelton Reed and others have defined the term Deep South to mean particularly those states lying between south Carolina and Louisiana. These areas have also been shown to have distinctive patterns of leisure. southerners participate less frequently in most arts and cultural activities than other americans; one study suggests that this reflects a style of life in the south that is more centered on home, family, and church.3 Deep south states, including Mississippi and its western neighbor, Louisiana (figure 6.1), are typically associated with a culture shaped largely by 130 | G A M B L I N G , S PA C E , A N D T I M E race and class, and by a strong resistance to change that noted social scientists have termed the “traditionalistic” political culture.4 This culture is often perceived as strongly resistant to excessive governmental regulations and to outside influences. It would seem that such a culture would strongly resist casino gambling as a policy option, given the strong tendency of governments to heavily regulate all forms of gambling and given that the industry is primarily driven by a small handful of multinational corporations headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. One of the most often-quoted observers of southern politics and culture, V. O. Key Jr., wrote in 1949 that every state in the south at times finds good cause to sarcastically say “Thank God for Mississippi.”5 The state all too often finds itself at the top of such rankings as infant mortality, out-of-wedlock births, and high school dropouts. Louisiana has likewise been shackled by long-standing burdens of poverty, racial, and class divisions. Both states have a history of political corruption scandals and, even more frequently, a fully developed and powerful “good old boy” network that has run the state both politically and economically for decades. Introduced into this cultural milieu in the early 1990s, modern casino gambling seems at first blush a rather odd addition. It was in 1992 that the gambling ship Isle of Capri in Biloxi, Mississippi, opened its doors to shouts of “Laissez les bon temps rouler!” (Let the good times roll!) from the city’s mayor.6 This early entry into casino gambling led the way to what is now the third-largest non-Indian casino gambling destination in the United states.7 about twenty years later, Mississippi is home to twenty-seven state-regulated casinos, ten of them along the Gulf Coast. Collectively in 2010 they produced $2.39 billion in annual gross gaming revenues , which is half as much as New Jersey but is larger than the amount earned by casinos in most other states such as Iowa and Illinois. Louisiana’s long and colorful history of promoting or, at minimum, allowing various forms of sin, from gambling to drinking to Mardi Gras, is well known. additionally, the state has an equally long history of political corruption . It, too, legalized casinos in the early 1990s...

Share