Religiosity and generational effects on gambling: Support for and opposition to introducing casino gambling in a non-gambling tourist entertainment environment

Today casino gambling and state lotteries have become the dominant types of gambling. Tourist destinations are attractive targets for gambling because large markets of potential customers already exist. Previous studies focus primarily on the current residents in geographic markets to estimate support for proposed casino gambling. The current study examines visitors to an existing tourist destination to gauge the level of support for and opposition to casino gambling coming into a tourist region/market with over eight million annual visitors. Tourists representing all 50 US states participated in this study. Religiosity, religious giving, denominational and generational effects are important factors in explaining attitudes toward gambling among participants.