Gambling on the Future

Casino Enclaves, Development, and Poverty Alleviation in Laos

Bibliographic Data

ID2902157
AuthorsKathryn Sims (0000-0003-1874-4932, James Cook University, corresponding author), Kearrin Sims
Year2017
Volume90
Issue4
Pages675-699
Publication date2017-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePacific Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0030-851X • E-ISSN: 1715-3379
PublisherPacific Affairs (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5509/2017904675
OpenAlexW2773064835
LanguageEN
Citations received11

Following the extraordinary wealth generation of casinos in Macau and Singapore, governments and non-state actors across Southeast Asia have developed gambling establishments as a means to fast-track economic growth and stimulate national development. Yet, here and elsewhere, casinos have been heavily criticized for their association with immoral behaviour, problem gambling, corruption and organized crime. In this article I focus on two casinos in northern Laos to address two research questions. First, I consider how casinos have come to exist within the remote border regions of one of Asia’s least developed countries. Here, I discuss vice economies within the Golden Triangle region, multi-actor aspirations to boost transnational connectivity within continental Southeast Asia, strengthening political-economic relationships between Laos and China, and Government of Laos efforts to use foreign investment as a mechanism for increasing governance capacities in borderlands. Following this, I critically analyse how, in what ways, and for whom, casinos have brought development to Laos. Here, I focus specifically on the multifarious effects of casinos on the lives and livelihoods of local communities to argue that casino development has been informed by logics of expulsion and the establishment of new predatory formations. To make this argument, the article draws on four fieldwork visits to each of the casino sites between 2011 and 2015, desk-based research, and interviews with local residents, casino staff and members of the Government of Laos

Business · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Natural resource economics · Political science · Poverty · Cuban History and Society · Gambling Behavior and Treatments · Marriage and Sexual Relationships

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