Residents' Attitudes Toward Casino Gambling in Kyrenia, North Cyprus: In Search of Theoretical Explanation?

Abstract

This study attempts to explore the residents' perception of casino gambling tourism in the coastal resort city of Kyrenia in north Cyprus (TRNC). After the closure of casinos in Turkey in the 1990s, Kyrenia became a spatial choice by the gambling industry and with the cooperation of the government in north Cyprus, the city has become home to the casino gambling tourism that has mushroomed in and around the city. The casino gambling tourism has been perceived as an agent of economic growth by the investors from outside and the indigenous policy makers inside. To explore the residents' attitudes towards gambling in their community, a survey questionnaire was administered to a non-randomly selected sample of residents in Kyrenia, and Spearman's Rho correlation tests were used to explore the relationships between community concerns, socioeconomic concerns, and community attachment as main constructs to evaluate residents' attitudes towards casino gambling. Overall, 32 items were used to explore linkages between the mentioned three constructs/community concerns, and casino gambling-related attitudes. Results indicate that the residents, by overwhelming majority, are negative about casino gambling in their community. Whilst residents are not in favor of banning casino gambling, they perceive casino gambling not as an engine of economic growth, but rather as a political and economic project that has bypassed their concerns and alienated their rights to be involved and to participate in the process. Therefore, the results revealed that residents have not been an equal partner in the process and have remained an outsider to casino gambling—that employed and was implemented as a “growth machine.” The results also indicate that the “growth machine” theory stands tall and explains the case of Kyrenia in comparison to the economic dependency, social exchange, and to the community attachment theories. The study also provides an insight into residents' attitudes toward the issue of growth and development within a community as a result of a specific form of tourism—casino gambling.