GGR stands for Gross Gaming Revenue in the gaming and online casino world. It is calculated as the difference between the net profit (the amount players wager minus the amount they win) and the tax an establishment pays in regards to gaming supplies. The profits can be huge. In 2006, the Gross Gaming Revenue in the USA was $90 billion.
Many people have described the profit the gaming industry makes and the way it profits from people’s financial losses as obscene. Yet there is evidence to support the idea that the gaming industry can contribute to an area’s overall economy. Firstly, it is said it can improve unemployment rates; for example, the UK betting industry is said to employ 100,000 people. Secondly, it can attract tourists to an area; according to the Daily Mail, the Las Vegas Strip is the most visited attraction in the world with almost 40 million visitors. Thirdly, the taxes they pay can lead to the building of better schools and facilities; in the 1990s, 45% of the Macau Government’s revenue came from gambling tax.
One of the biggest benefactors of legalized gambling was Atlantic City. After the Second World War, the resort fell into serious decline. Few thought anything could be done about the poverty, crime and corruption until the state of New Jersey voted to legalize gambling in the city in 1974. Its problems weren’t cured overnight, but in 1989, Time Magazine voted it the most visited place in America. Even today, the gambling industry in Atlantic City earns a GGR of $3 billion every year.
On the flip-side, others would claim that those who list the benefits of gambling and the profits it generates are the ones that stand to benefit from the industry the most. Though the casinos make money, critics claim they do so on a superficial level and that they don’t, as an article on the economics of gambling states, add to the economy’s ability to produce more.