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(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

Two economists studied federal corruption conviction rates in states before and after they legalized casino gambling between the years

1985 to 2000.

Mississippi tops the list.

According to The Pew Research Center, economists Douglas M. Walker and Peter T. Calcagno analyzed the average number of corruption convictions for every 10,000 state employees. The result was four out of the five states with the highest annual rates of public corruption were casino states.

Per the economists' report:

“Interestingly, when we examine the individual states’ trends in per capita corruption convictions, we find the trends tend to be increasing both before and after casinos are legalized and begin operating,” they report in the journal Applied Economics

They give two theories for the patterns.

The increase in public corruption convictions before states approve casinos shows that the casino industry is attracted to states with what they called an existing “culture of corruption.”

Secondly, the rise in public corruption convictions after legalization suggests that casino interests also are “able to capture regulators, yielding a more favorable regulatory atmosphere, but perhaps tainted by corruption.”

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