Measuring the impact of casino proceeds on total per pupil expenditures for education in Mississippi

• Published in: Journal of public budgeting, accounting & financial management Vol. 16; no. 4; pp. 554 - 569
• Main Authors: French, P. Edward, Stanley, Rodney E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boca Raton Emerald Publishing Limited 01-03-2004; Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• Subjects: Casinos; Education; Education expenses; Education policy; Expenditures; Finance; Funding; Gambling; Governors; Impact analysis; Legalized gambling; Legislation; Legislators; Legislatures; Lotteries; Mississippi; Petroleum industry; Politics; Public schools; Riverboat casinos; School districts; State budgets; State government; Studies; Tax cuts; Tax increases; United States; Voters; United States > US; Mississippi
• ISSN: 1096-3367; 1945-1814
• DOI: 10.1108/JPBAFM-16-04-2004-B005

The Mississippi Legislature adopted casino gaming in 1990 for the purpose of curing financial ills that have long plagued the Magnolia state. Local policy makers were given the opportunity to tax the casino industry at 3.2 percent of gaming wins, with an additional .8 percent if these local government stakeholders deemed it necessary to extract additional supplemental revenue from the casino industry. One program designated as a beneficiary of this revenue-generating source was education. This paper borrows research techniques from the lottery literature in an effort to measure the impact of casino gaming dollars on per pupil spending in Mississippi. The conclusions reached by this research suggests that the thirteen school districts receiving casino proceeds for education are significantly benefiting from this supplemental source of revenue.