Pennsylvania gambling big on casinos

PHILADELPHIA, April 9 (UPI) -- Pennsylvania's gambling industry is hoping the state's new slot machine parlors will generate $3 billion in annual revenue by 2010.

Gambling experts, however, say the money comes at a cost, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Some of the side effects are the economic cost of dealing with increased traffic and the social cost of treating gambling addicts.

"You would never hire an accountant to just put in the income side of how much you earn if you have a business. You put in the income and expenses and come up with a net figure," said Robert Goodman, a professor at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., who has written extensively on the effect of casinos on local economies.

Brian McGill, who tracks the gambling industry for Susquehanna Financial Group L.L.P., told the newspaper Pennsylvania will have to build a customer base while facing intense competition from New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut and New York.