Beginning in the late 1980s, casinos became a favoured neoliberal economic development strategy for cash-strapped states and municipalities. During the same time period, the political power and profitability of the gaming industry increased, while opposition from communities grew. A recent example of this phenomenon is the controversy that ensued after Pennsylvania’s legalization of slot machines and the subsequent selection of two casino sites in Philadelphia. Our study analyses the Philadelphia casino controversy using a critical case study approach and the theoretical framework of accumulation by dispossession.We argue that the situation in Philadelphia represents attempted value extraction by corporate and government elites from communities and citizens. Moreover, the nature of the value extraction goes beyond the economic, impinging on the social dimensions of community life.
Abercrombie, N., Hill, S. and Turner, B.S. ( 1980) The Dominant Ideology Thesis. London : Allen and Unwin.
2.
Adams, C., Bartelt, D., Elesh, D., Goldstein, I., Kleniewski, N. and Yancey, W. ( 1991) Neighborhoods, Division, and Conflict in a Postindustrial City. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
3.
Akard, P.J. ( 1992) ‘Corporate Mobilization and Political Power: The Transformation of US Economic Policy in the 1970s’, American Sociological Review57: 597-615.
4.
American Gaming Association (2007) Facts at Your FingertipsWashington, DC: US Commercial Casino Industry.
5.
Banerjee, S.B. ( 2000) ‘The Practice of Stakeholder Colonialism: National Interest and Colonial Discourses in the Management of Indigenous Stakeholders’ , in A. Prasad (ed.) Postcolonial Theory and Organization Analysis: A Critical Engagement, pp.255-82. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
6.
Barnes, T. ( 2007) ‘Donors Give at Least $2 million for Rendell’s Celebration’, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 20 January 2007.
7.
Bissenger, B. ( 1997) A Prayer for the City. New York, NY : Vintage Books.
8.
Block, F. ( 1987) Revising State Theory: Essays in Politics and Postindustrialism . Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
9.
Burawoy, M. ( 1979) Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Capitalism. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
10.
Christiansen, E. ( 2000) ‘Mixed Results: The 1990 GrossAnnual Wager’, International Gaming and Wagering Business21(8): 15-17.
11.
Deaux, E. and Callaghan, J.W. ( 1985) ‘Key Informant versus Self-Report Estimates of Health Behavior’, Evaluation Review9: 365-68.
12.
DeWalt, K.M. and DeWalt, B.R. ( 2002) Participant Observation: A Guide for Fieldworkers. Walnut Creek, CA: Altimira.
13.
Domhoff, G.W. ( 2002) Who Rules America? Power and Politics, 4th edn. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill .
14.
Dye, T.R. ( 2002) Who’s Running America: The Bush Restoration, 7th edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Goodman, R. ( 1995) The Luck Business: The Devastating Consequences and Broken Promises of America’s Gambling Explosion. New York, NY: Free Press.
18.
Gramsci, A. ( 1971) Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci (Q. Hoare and G. Nowell-Smith, Trans.). New York, NY: International Publishers.
19.
Griswold, M.T. and Nichols, M.W. ( 2006) ‘Social Capital and Casino Gambling in US Communities’ , Social Indicators Research77: 369-94.
20.
Guba, E.G. and Lincoln, Y.S. ( 1998) ‘Competing Paradigms in Qualitative Research’ , in K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research, pp. 195-220. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
21.
Harvey, D. ( 2003) The New Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press
22.
Harvey, D. ( 2005) A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
23.
Harvey, D. ( 2006) Spaces of Global Capitalism: Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development. London: Verso.
24.
Hillman, A.J., Keim, G.D. and Schuler, D. ( 2004) ‘Corporate Political Activity: A Review and Research Agenda’, Journal of Management30(6): 837-57.
25.
Hughes, M.A. ( 2000) ‘Dirt into Dollars: Converting Vacant Land into Valuable Development’, The Brookings Review18(3): 34-37.
26.
Hurdel, J. ( 2010) ‘Pennsylvania Lawmakers OK Table Games for Casinos’ , Reuters 6 January 2010. Available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6055ME20100106 (accessed 25 March 2010).
27.
Lane, C. ( 2005) ‘Justices Affirm Property Seizures’, The Washington Post 24 June 2005. Available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/23/AR2005062300783.html (accessed 25 March 2010).
28.
Lin, J. ( 2006) ‘Cars, Crime and Ports top South Philadelphia Concerns’ , The Philadelphia Inquirer 21 December 2006 .
29.
Lin, J. ( 2007) ‘Fishtown’s Casino Backers’, The Philadelphia Inquirer 16 July 2007.
30.
Loeb, V. ( 1993) ‘Rendell Resurrects Riverboat-Gambling Concept’ , The Philadelphia Inquirer 18 May 1993.
31.
Lynch, A. ( 1997) ‘Profitable Payoffs?’Mother Jones 9 June 1997. Available at: http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/coinop_congress/easymoney/ (accessed 31 August 2007).
32.
McCoy, C.R. and Gorenstein, N. ( 1998) ‘Floating Casinos Out of the Picture’, The Philadelphia Inquirer 27 January 1998.
33.
Miliband, R. ( 1969) The State in Capitalist Society. New York, NY: Basic Books.
34.
Mills, C.W. ( 1967) The Power Elite. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
35.
Mitchell, R.K., Agle, B.R. and Wood, D.J. ( 1997) ‘Towards a Theory of Stakeholder Identification and Salience: Defining the Principle of Who and What Really Counts’ , Academy of Management Review72: 853-86.
36.
Molotch, H. ( 1976) The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place’, The American Journal of Sociology82(2): 309-32.
37.
Moraff, C. ( 2007) ‘Money, Politics May Have Served as a Motivator in Slots Locations’, Philadelphia Tribune 25 March 2007.
38.
Morphy, H. and Banks, M. ( 1999) ‘Introduction: Rethinking Visual Anthropology’ , in H. Morphy and M. Banks (eds) Rethinking Visual Anthropology. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
39.
Murphy, F. ( 2007) Economic Impact of the Foxwoods Casino. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University.
40.
Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (2007) 2006 Annual Report. Harrisburg, PA. Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
41.
Prahalad, C.K. and Ramaswamy, V. ( 2004) The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
42.
Reith, G. ( 2007) ‘Gambling and the Contradictions of Consumption: A Genealogy of the "Pathological" Subject’, American Behavioral Scientist51(1): 33-55.
43.
Richardson, L. ( 1990) ‘Narrative and Sociology’, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography19(1): 116-35.
44.
Richardson, L. ( 2003) ‘Writing: A Method of Inquiry’, in N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds) Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
45.
Sharma, K. ( 2006) ‘Remaking Cities, Changing People’, The Hindu 23 October. Available at: http://www.hindu.com/2006/10/23/stories/2006102303801100.html (accessed 27 November 2007).
46.
Shields, J. ( 2007) ‘The Reels of Fortune: PA Gamble Paying Off’ , The Philadelphia Inquirer 28 February 2007 .
47.
Slater, D. and Tonkiss, F. ( 2001) Market Society: Markets and Modern Social Theory. Oxford: Polity Press.
48.
Simon, B. ( 2004) Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
49.
Smith, A. ( 2005) ‘Reimaging the City: The Value of Sports Initiatives’ , Annals of Tourism Research32(1): 217-36.
50.
Teague, M. ( 2007) ‘Rendell’s Slots Debacle: The True Saga of How Ed Screwed the City’, Philadelphia Magazine.
51.
Throsby, D. ( 2001) Economics and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
52.
Tofani, L. ( 1998) ‘Gambling Industry Seeks a Winning Image’ , The Philadelphia Inquirer 6 July 1998.
53.
Useem, M. ( 1984) The Inner Circle: Large Corporations and the Rise of Business Political Activity. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
54.
Volberg, R.A. and Wray, M. ( 2007) ‘Legal Gambling and Problem Gambling as Mechanisms of Social Domination? Some Considerations for Future Research’, American Behavioral Scientist51(1): 56-85.
55.
Watters, J.K. and Biernacki, P. ( 1989) ‘Targeted Sampling: Options for the Study of Hidden Populations’, Social Problems36(4): 416-30.
56.
Weber, R. ( 2002) ‘Extracting Value from the City: Neoliberalism and Urban Redevelopment’, Antipode34(3): 520-40.
57.
Yin, R.K. ( 2003) Case Study Research, 3rd edn. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
58.
Zimmerman, J. ( 2008) ‘From Brew Town to Cool Town: Neoliberalism and the Creative City Strategy in Milwaukee’, Cities25(4): 230-42.
