Questions analyzed are: Does crime increase due to 'natural growth' or to the particular nature of the industry? Does crime diffuse to nearby localities? Analysis is based on pooling cross sectional data of 72 localities in Atlantic, Cape May, and Ocean Counties with annual time-series information for 1974-1983. The level of total crimes in all localities increased by 13.6 percent in 1978-1983. The levels of all crimes in adjacent/accessible localities are 12.2 percent higher than the levels for the same crimes in other localities, and than they would have been in the absence of casinos. Results suggest that casinos might have brought significantly more crime than the population increase warrants, and that crime is positively associated with population size, density, and rate of unemployment. 2 tables, 4 footnotes, and 13 references.