Business Professor Claims Simply Eliminating Betting Would Reverse Global Economic Downturn

April 20, 2009 12:59 p.m. EST

Urbana, IL (AHN) - Well, here's food for thought: A business professor claims that the global economic downturn could be reversed by simply outlawing all gambling world-wide.

John W. Kindt, a professor of business and public policy at the University of Illinois and national gambling critic, is making a case for banning legalized gambling.

Kindt, who has studied gambling for 20 years, says legalized gambling is weighing down a global economy that is already in its deepest downturn since the Great Depression.

Of course, some observers would say it was the bad, but legal, bets made by the financial and banking industries on risky and complicated financial instruments and loans that caused the global economic downturn to begin with.

Kindt bases his betting ban arguments on a new 3,000 page collection of research he co-authored and edited.

"Because of the economy, people are starting to realize they need to get back to sound economic principles," Kindt said in a statement. "If you want to get out of the recession, you have to go back to basics, and economists agree that you can't gamble your way to prosperity. In fact, it's just the opposite."

The report series, titled "The United States International Gambling Report," says casinos siphon money away from struggling economies and create expense for taxpayers because of the crime and social problems caused by gambling. The report also states that banning gambling would put that money back into the economy where the multiplier effect would triple its impact by creating jobs to provide goods and services.