Stacking the Deck: How States Wield the Power of Involuntary Exclusion to Police Commercial Casinos

Abstract

Commercial casinos are a $60 billion dollar industry that grows at an exponential rate every year, but the regulations that govern this industry remain largely understudied. Among these regulations is the expansive power of involuntary exclusion, a state’s power to permanently ban an individual from all gaming properties for any reason at any time. Involuntary exclusion has existed as long as legalized gambling in the United States, and its scope has only grown since then. This research conducts a historical analysis of involuntary exclusion as an institution, establishing its fundamental link to the fear of organized crime and cheating on the part of regulators. By assembling a dataset of all individuals to have ever been placed on any involuntary exclusion list throughout the country, this paper quantitatively analyzes the groups that have been targeted by involuntary exclusion. Far from the original intent of exclusion, modern lists are overwhelmingly non-white, local, and small-time criminals. This thesis posits that states employing certain regulatory models of involuntary exclusion have repurposed the institution to serve as a general police power, eclipsing its casino-specific origins.