1. Casino Nsw Crime Rate Today
2. Casino Nsw Crime Rate Chart
3. Casino Nsw Crime Rate 2019
4. Casino Nsw Crime Rate Statistics

Liquor & Gaming LiveData is an online tool that allows you to search the latest liquor licence information alongside demographic, alcohol-related crime and health data for every suburb and Local Government Area in NSW.

Find and display graphical information about crime rates in Casino(2470). Crime rates are ranked and compared to NSW base lines. Note: Crime rate means the number crimes per 100,000 population.

To help you get the most out of the tool, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most commonly asked questions about LiveData below.

If you still can’t find an answer to your question after reading the FAQs, please contact us at livedata@liquorandgaming.nsw.gov.au or call 1300 024 720.

What is Liquor & Gaming LiveData?
LiveData is an online tool that allows you to search and generate a report which includes the number and type of liquor businesses and the latest demographic and alcohol-related crime and health data for every suburb and Local Government Area (LGA) in NSW.
It brings together publicly-available data into one centralised, easy-to-use online tool that features interactive maps, charts and benchmarks. This is the same data the NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) considers when it makes decisions on liquor-related applications.
LiveData is informed by ILGA Guideline 6, which describes data that ILGA can consider when assessing the social impacts of a liquor-related application.
What is the purpose of the demonstration period?
The purpose of the demonstration period is to allow the public to test LiveData prior to its full release. During this period, checks on data quality and functionality of the program will continue to be made.
During the demonstration period it is not intended that LiveData be used for any applications, submissions or decisions. How long does the demonstration period last?
The demonstration period will last until approximately late-February.
What is the purpose of Liquor & Gaming LiveData?
The purpose of Liquor & Gaming LiveData is to improve the transparency and availability of the data used by the Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority to inform its decisions on liquor-related applications.
What are the benefits of Liquor & Gaming LiveData?
Liquor & Gaming LiveData makes it easier for government, industry and the community to access the latest data related to liquor-related applications and alcohol-related risks for locations across NSW.
LiveData will improve the transparency of the liquor licensing process, help applicants and Liquor Accords to better address the risk of alcohol-related harm in their local area, and help the community to prepare better informed submissions in response to liquor-related applications.
What information, other than Liquor & Gaming LiveData, will the Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority consider when making liquor licensing decisions?
Once LiveData has launched, ILGA will continue to consider other information when making liquor-related decisions, including Community Impact Statements, submissions, the information provided by the applicant, and L&GNSW compliance reports.
Why is it called Liquor & Gaming LiveData if it only contains liquor-related data?
While Liquor & Gaming LiveData currently only contains data related to liquor applications, inclusion of gaming-related data is planned for the future.

How do I access Liquor & Gaming LiveData?
You can access the Liquor & Gaming LiveData tool here. You can use the tool to create LiveData reports for all suburbs and LGAs in NSW.
How can I use the information in Liquor & Gaming LiveData?
LiveData is currently in a demonstration period. As such, it is advised that LiveData is not to be relied upon for applications, submission or decisions until the full version is released. However, once the demonstration period is complete and LiveData is released, LiveData can be used in the ways listed below.
If you are a liquor licence applicant, LiveData can help you identify potential risks of alcohol-related harm in a community.
You can use this information to modify or improve your application in response to those risks.
If you are part of a Liquor Accord, LiveData can help you to understand the alcohol-related trends and risks in your local area. You can use this data to inform accord strategies that address any identified issues.
As a member of the community, LiveData can improve your understanding of conditions and risks in your neighbourhood. This information can be helpful if you wish to make a submission about a liquor-related application.
How can I provide feedback on Liquor & Gaming LiveData?
The best way to provide feedback on Liquor & Gaming LiveData is through the feedback widget that can be found on the right-hand side of the browser.

How do I select certain licence types to show on the map?
Click on the “Data layers” button at the top of the map. A row of different licence types will appear at the top of the panel. You can then toggle the specific licence types that you want to see displayed.
How do I see the distribution of different offences on the map?
Click on the “Data layers” button at the top of the map. Offences can be displayed in either ‘heat map’ or ‘hot spot’ form. Heat maps display the distribution of offences by LGA. They work best by zooming out so the entire LGA can be seen. Hot spots will display the distribution of offences by density. They can be viewed by zooming in close to observe hotspots in specific areas within a suburb, or by zooming out to view hotspots within an entire LGA.
Why are some licensed premises shown in a wrong location?
In a small number of cases, the map may show licensed premises that appear to be in an incorrect position. This may be due to the wrong address information being submitted to Liquor & Gaming NSW by the operator of a licensed premises. You can report these to Liquor & Gaming NSW via the feedback panel of the LiveData tool.
Why does the Street View image of a licensed premises show an outdated or unrelated image?
Street View images on LiveData use Google Street View. This data is not controlled by Liquor & Gaming NSW. There may be occasions where the images are inaccurate due to issues with Google Street View’s technology or the currency of its data.

The map indicates that there is a liquor licence in a location that I know is not a liquor outlet. Why is this?
The licences plotted on the interactive map reflects all authorised liquor licences. It is likely that a small percentage of these licences will not be actively trading at any given point in time, though their authorisation allows them to resume trading according to the existing licensing conditions.

Where does L&GNSW source the data used in Liquor & Gaming LiveData?
Population, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and SEIFA data are based on 2016 Census data and sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics website. Liquor licensing data is sourced from the NSW Government’s OneGov database. Offence data is sourced from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. Alcohol-attributable hospitalisations and deaths data is sourced from the NSW HealthStats website.
How often is the data used in Liquor & Gaming LiveData updated?
Population and other demographic data are sourced from the 2016 Census. These data is updated every five years when Census data is released. The next Census will occur in 2021. Licensing data is updated monthly. Offence data is updated quarterly. Alcohol-attributable hospitalisations and death data is updated annually. LiveData data is updated as new data becomes available.
Is all data reported on Liquor & Gaming LiveData available in the public domain?
Demographic data from the 2016 Census is publicly available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics website. Alcohol-attributable hospitalisations and deaths data is publicly available on the NSW HealthStats website.
While most offence data is publicly available via the NSW Crime Tool on the BOCSAR website, not all breakdowns by severity of assault and time of day are available via this tool. While not published on the L&GNSW website, liquor licence data can be requested from L&GNSW. Fees for L&GNSW data reports range from $50 - $100 per report.
Why are there suburbs and LGAs that are missing historical census data?
Some suburbs may be missing data from the 2006 and 2011 censuses as they may not have existed at the time of those censuses. Additionally, some LGAs may be missing historic data due to the council amalgamations that have occurred in recent years.
Why is alcohol-attributable deaths data not as recent as alcohol-attributable hospitalisations data?
The time lag for reporting alcohol-attributable deaths is greater than for alcohol-attributable hospitalisations as there are more steps involved in the reporting of deaths than hospitalisations. Further detail can be found under ‘Methods’ in the alcohol-attributable deaths section of the NSW HealthStats website.

Why are alcohol-attributable deaths reported on a calendar year basis and alcohol-attributable hospitalisations on a financial year basis?
NSW HealthStats reports alcohol-attributable hospitalisations on a financial year basis and alcohol-attributable deaths on a calendar year basis. The data included in LiveData reflects this.

How is outlet saturation calculated?
Outlet saturation is a measure of the number of liquor licences compared to the population. It is calculated per 100,000 residents in an area [i.e. (number of liquor licences/residential population) x 100,000]. Packaged liquor licences where a ‘no walk-up sales’ condition exists (i.e. where take-away liquor can only be sold via telephone, mail, or online orders and delivered to a specified location), producer/wholesaler licences without a drink on-premises authorisation, and limited licences are excluded from these calculations.

How is outlet clustering calculated?
Outlet clustering is calculated using the following steps:

Step 1: Draw a 1km radius around each authorised liquor licence in the locality under examination

Step 2: Count the number of other licences (of either the same type or all types, depending on the clustering measure being calculated) within each 1 km radius, including any liquor licences that fall within adjacent suburbs or LGAs

Step 3: Add the number of liquor licences within each 1km radius together and divide by the total number of liquor licences in the area.

How does Liquor & Gaming LiveData measure socioeconomic status?
Socioeconomic status is measured by the ABS Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Relative Socioeconomic Advantage & Disadvantage.

What benchmarks are used to compare alcohol-related conditions in an area?
In Liquor & Gaming LiveData, alcohol-related conditions in any area are compared to both NSW and a regional benchmark based on the relevant Australian Statistical Geography Standard remoteness area.

What are the different remoteness areas and what do they reflect?
The five different remoteness areas under the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) are:

• Major cities of Australia
• Inner regional Australia
• Outer regional Australia
• Remote Australia
• Very remote Australia

The different remoteness areas reflect relative access to services. More detailed information about remoteness areas can be found on the Australian Bureau of Statistics website.

Do outlet saturation and offence rates take into account the number of non-residents that visit an area?
No. Outlet saturation and offence rates are based on resident populations only. They do not account for the number of non-residents that may visit a suburb or LGA. Caution should be exercised when interpreting data for areas which attract a significant number of tourists or visitors.

Why is historical licensing, offence, and health data reported over a three-year period?
ILGA uses data for the most recent three-year period to inform its decisions. Licensing data is confined to a three-year period to avoid misleading comparisons arising from the impacts of the introduction of annual liquor licence fees in July 2015. This scheme resulted in a relinquishment of a significant number of dormant liquor licences at the time. The possibility of extending this three year period in the future will be considered as part of the evaluation of Liquor & Gaming LiveData.

Which liquor licence types are included in licence number calculations?
The following types of liquor licence are included in licence number calculations:

• Hotel
• Club
• Packaged (except where take-away liquor can only be sold via telephone, mail, or online orders and delivered to a specified location – i.e. a ‘no walk-up sales’ condition exists)
• On-premises
• Small bar
• Producer/wholesaler (with drink on premises authorisation)

The following types of liquor licence are not included in licence number calculations:

• Packaged (where a ‘no walk-up sales’ condition exists - i.e. where take-away liquor can only be sold via telephone, mail, or online orders and delivered to a specified location)
• Producer/wholesaler (without drink on premises authorisation)
• Limited

These licence types have not been included because they do not have a continuous presence in a specific location or location-specific impacts.

Are liquor licences that are interstate but still within 1km of an authorised licence factored into outlet density (clustering) calculations?
No. Interstate liquor licences are not factored into outlet density (clustering) calculations.

Do licence numbers reported in Liquor & Gaming LiveData only include venues that are currently trading?
No. Licence numbers provided in Liquor & Gaming LiveData reflect all authorised liquor licences. It is likely that a small percentage of these licences will not be actively trading at any given point in time, though their authorisation allows them to resume trading according to the existing licensing conditions. Licence numbers provided in Liquor & Gaming LiveData do not include surrendered or cancelled licences.

What is the rationale for including each data set in Liquor & Gaming LiveData?
The data sets included in LiveData are informed by ILGA Guideline 6¹, which describes the data that ILGA can consider when assessing the social impacts of a liquor related proposal under s.48 of the Liquor Act 2007.

Will additional sources of data be added in the future?
Additional sources of data may be included in the future based on research evidence and the outcomes of an evaluation of Liquor & Gaming LiveData.

Why is there no gaming data in LiveData?
While the gaming data was not included in the initial development of Liquor & Gaming LiveData, it may be included in the future.

In the midst of an economic crisis, the U.S. gambling industry continues to grow–and so does the debate over its connection to crime.

It's a familiar, and sad, story: a 41-year-old housekeeper in Bangor, Maine, forged $40,000 in checks belonging to elderly people in the assisted-living home where she worked, then gambled it away at Hollywood Slots, a cavernous 1,000-slot-machine establishment that dominates one side of Bangor, an old, poor, church-spired New England town.

She pleaded guilty, blaming an addiction to gambling, and in 2008 received a three-year prison term.

But doesn’t Hollywood Slots deserve some blame? While mob-infested gambling largely belongs to another era, the nationwide proliferation of casinos continues to raise the question of whether such establishments create or enable desperate gambling addicts who break the law to support their habit.

The alleged link between casinos and crime, in fact, is bitterly debated across the country, particularly in financially stressed towns or states where lucrative gambling concessions provide needed revenue. A definitive resolution is unlikely any time soon, since attempts to scientifically prove (or disprove) the connection are usually trumped by moral, financial or political issues.

Meanwhile, the glitter of Las Vegas has spread to nearly every state. The United States has the dubious distinction of harboring the most casinos in the world–705, counting the 216 listed by the National Indian Gaming Association and the 489 represented by the American Gaming Association, the Washington lobby groups respectively for Indian and “commercial” casinos. France, the number-two country, has fewer than 200.

Las Vegas’s gold glitters in Washington, too. The spread of gambling casinos had Capitol Hill concerned about crime a few years ago, but the issue no longer excites much controversy–and that just may have something to do with the fact that the gambling lobby has become a powerful force in national politics. Congressional and presidential candidates alone received $28 million from gambling interests in the 2008 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Capitol Hill debate on gambling now is on whether to legalize it on the internet.

But at the local level the anti-gambling troops work hard to keep the casinos and crime issue alive. The check-forger story was publicized by CasinosNo, a Maine organization that battles against perennial proposals for new casinos in the state. The group also drew attention recently to the fact that Bangor's crime rate jumped 26 per cent in the three years since the casino opened. In contrast, the group notes, two bigger Maine cities, Portland and Lewiston, experienced crime declines during that period.

“I don’t know if the crime rate increase is directly related to the casino,” says spokesman Dennis Bailey, “but it should be studied before we bring more slot machines to Maine.”

Casino Nsw Crime Rate Today

Next door in New Hampshire, Jim Rubens, chairman of the Granite State Coalition Against Expanded Gambling, doesn’t feel more study is needed. “It’s a fact” that casinos bring crime, he says flatly. New Hampshire currently has no casinos, but it's not for lack of trying. According to Rubens, gambling interests have spent millions of dollars in lobbying activities and advertising to try to get the legislature to legalize them.

As proof of his allegation about crime, Rubens cites the comprehensive national study, “Casinos, Crime, and Community Costs,” published in 2006 in TheReview of Economics and Statistics, a prestigious academic journal produced by Harvard and MIT. Like the leaders of other grassroots anti-gambling groups around the country, Rubens considers it the ultimate scientific authority on the subject.

The study by economists Earl Grinols, now of Baylor University, and David Mustard, of the University of Georgia, examined crime rates in every county in the nation covering a period of 20 years – from 1977, just before the first casinos outside Nevada were built in Atlantic City, to 1996. It concluded that opening a casino led to local crime increases averaging eight percent. (Grinols says the 10-year gap between data collection and publication is “not uncommon” in academia and the data didn’t become less relevant during that period since the study was of basic behavior.)

Grinols and Mustard’s findings made news, but not surprisingly they failed to persuade anyone on the other side of the issue. While anti-gambling forces used the findings to promote their case (United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts, that state’s chief anti-casino group, has numbers from the study flashing on its website’s home page), the American Gaming Association was notably unworried. “In our minds the issue has been settled,” says Holly Thomsen, the associaton’s communications director.

How has it been settled? Despite the critics’ allegations and the Grinols-Mustard study, Thomsen says that on this issue people have voted with their feet. “People are pretty happy” with casinos, she says. She adds in an email: “The fears people have about crime accompanying a casino coming into a community simply don’t materialize once the casinos are actually there. In countless gaming jurisdictions across the country, law enforcement officers actually working in the community and around the casinos say crime hasn’t gone up.”

That lack of fear, at least, can be documented. Despite the recession (or perhaps because of it), the casino industry–with its lure of easy riches–continues to spread across the U.S. Kansas legalized casinos in 2007. In 2008 Colorado extended casino hours and legalized more games, Missouri abolished the casino loss limit, and Maryland legalized slots parlors. Ohio approved four big casinos just last month.

The gross annual wager

The prospect of tax revenues and casino jobs smoothed the way. Casinos have become a big, big business. Ten years ago legal gambling – including casinos, state lotteries, and horse tracks – was about a $50-billion enterprise. Now, according to industry analyst Christensen Capital Advisors, the “gross annual wager” of the United States is almost $100 billion, far ahead of spending on movies, spectator sports and theme parks.

Casinos raked in the most money, according to the American Gaming Association: $63 billion in 2008 in 45 states, toting up commercial and Indian casinos and the racetrack-related and slots-dominated “racinos” (Maine’s Hollywood Slots is one of these). Fifty-five million adults visited a casino in 2008, the trade association says – a quarter of the adult population.

Casino Nsw Crime Rate Chart

With those numbers, it's easy to see why Washington has stayed out of the fray. “Nobody wants to take this issue on,” laments Rep. Frank Wolf, a conservative Virginia Republican. With both parties taking money from casino interests, he adds, “It’s a bipartisan problem.”

Ten years ago Wolf and other lawmakers opposed to casino expansion had more sway. Wolf was one of the moving forces behind the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, whose 1999 report stressed that “pathological” gamblers have a tendency to commit crimes to pay for their addiction. (Gambling addiction is a sickness, according to the American Psychiatric Association, and criminal activity is a symptom.) The report called for a 'pause' in casino expansion in order to provide more time for research. That didn't happen, but the 2006 Grinols-Mustard study filled in some of the gaps.

In addition to documenting increased crime rates in counties where casinos had opened, the study found that nearby counties also felt the impact and that a casino didn’t just move crime from elsewhere toward the casino’s county but created it. Grinols and Mustard had examined the seven serious FBI “index” offenses: aggravated assault, robbery, murder, burglary, auto theft, larceny, and rape. All except murder showed a significant increase.

The 2006 study remains the most definitive yet, says John Kindt, a legal policy professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who publishes papers on the social costs of gambling. “There’s nothing that can touch it,” he says. Dennis Delay, an economist who researches gambling issues for the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, adds: “The Grinols-Mustard study is probably state of the art.”

Other studies, though, suggest the link is arguable. University of Nevada at Reno professor Grant Stitt and his colleagues conducted federally financed research published in 2003 that compared crime-rate change in six “new casino” and six non-casino communities. Little difference was found. Stitt calls his own work the definitive one on the issue, with 19 academic papers resulting from it.

And pro-gambling forces argue that, statistically, reported crime increases around casinos are a result of bad number-crunching. In calculating the crime rate of a casino town, they say, the number of visitors to the casino should be added to the number of local residents, which Grinols and Mustard didn’t do. But if that’s done, the crime rate–the number of crimes in a given area divided by the population (generally expressed as crimes per 100,000 people)–usually drops significantly. This accurately gauges “the risk of being victimized” for both groups, says Douglas Walker, an economist at the College of Charleston.

Complicating the professorial part of this debate, though, and provoking finger-pointing about bias, some academics take money from the gambling industry (like Walker) and others are out front with their religious perspective (like Grinols and Mustard, both active in the Association of Christian Economists).

Then there’s the difficulty in singling out casinos as a factor in the overall crime picture. In Bangor, for example, law enforcement authorities and city officials attribute their rising crime rate to an increase in the number of methadone clinics as well as the worsening economy–not the local casino.

Grinols maintains, however, there’s no dispute that gambling causes crime. The only questions, he says, “are how big is the impact and can you get a good measurement.” Even the American Gaming Association agrees that gambling addiction is a social problem.The National Gambling Impact Study Commission found that a third of addicted gamblers had been arrested for a crime, compared to four percent of non-gamblers. A federally funded study by researchers at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas of people arrested for crimes in Las Vegas and Des Moines reported in 2004 that nearly a third of pathological gamblers “admitted having committed robbery in the previous year. Approximately 13 percent had assaulted someone for money.”

On the other hand, that study noted that addicted gamblers tend to be drug and alcohol abusers and often had been in trouble with the law before they became addicted to gambling—a picture that fits with the claim that casinos don’t directly cause crime.

Casino Nsw Crime Rate 2019

The real issue, however, may not be the individual gambler's addiction–but the government's. “Most gambling policies in the U.S. are guided principally by the anticipated economic benefits,” says a 2006 New Mexico State University study on the impact of Indian gambling in that state. Kindt, the Illinois professor, argues that government has been “corrupted” by casino money.

Whenever casino opponents get discouraged as they contemplate this fat wallet and the industry’s widespread support, they look for inspiration to the long, arduous battle to reign in the tobacco industry.

“This is going to go the same way as smoking,” says Tom Grey, a retired Methodist minister who is spokesman and field director for the Washington, D.C.-based Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation.

Grey foresees lawsuits against gambling interests similar to the successful suits against tobacco companies for pushing cigarettes on consumers despite the companies’ knowledge that nicotine is addictive. Although he concedes that at present his group is having trouble raising money, he says the gambling industry has overextended itself like Napoleon invading Russia, and now “the Russian winter is setting in.”

He concludes: “They’re trapped now.”

Casino Nsw Crime Rate Statistics

Maybe so. But considering the industry’s continuing growth the odds do not appear to be in the opponents’ favor.

Lance Tapley is a freelance investigative reporter based in Maine.

Photo by tricky via Flickr.