gambling in alberta - Research Services - University of Lethbridge

Origin of Net Gambling Revenue by Demographic Characteristics
The next issue to examine regarding where the money comes from concerns gambling revenue
as a function of demographic characteristics. For this we have to look at the population surveys
of gambling in Alberta that were conducted in 1992, 1993, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,
2007, 2008, and 2009. The details of these studies are contained in Appendix B. It is important
to remember that findings in one year are not perfectly comparable to findings in other years
due to the fact that a) response rates to survey participation are different between years (with
progressively lower rates in later years); b) weighting the obtained sample against household
size and known demographic characteristics of the population to correct for sampling biases
was not done in some survey years (1992, 1993, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005) and c)
questions were often asked in slightly different ways each time.
Table 18 provides rates of past year participation in gambling and each form of gambling in
each survey year. 37 The first thing of note is that a large majority of the population has
participated in one or more forms of gambling over the past 20 years. The second thing of note
is that participation rates vary considerably as a function of game type. While about 3/5 people
purchase lottery tickets and 2/5 participate in raffles; only about 1/3 of people purchase instant
win tickets; 1/5 engage in social gambling; 1/7 gamble at out-of-province casinos or play slot
machines; 1/8 play VLTs; 1/11 bet on sports, purchase high risk stocks, or play casino table
games; 1/20 play bingo; 1/25 bet on horse racing; and about 1/35 engage in Internet gambling.
The third thing of note is that participation rates in some games have been stable over time,
while others have varied (with this stability or variation mirroring changes previously reported
regarding the availability of different forms of gambling and the revenue they have generated).
Lotteries, raffles, and possibly instant win tickets have lost some of their popularity since the
early 1990s, which may account for a slight decline in overall gambling participation rates. The
lower rates of gambling participation obtained after 2000 (i.e., 70 – 77%) compared to before
2000 (87 – 90%) is at least partly due to not asking about purchase of raffle tickets as a form of
gambling in these later surveys. However, there also appears to be a genuine decrease in
overall participation, as seen by the decline in household participation rates in Statistics Canada
Survey of Household Spending (SHS) from 1997 to 2008. (Although there are problems with the
accuracy of the SHS data, the biases are consistent across time periods). Somewhat counter
intuitively, there has been an increase in travel to out-of-province casinos subsequent to the
wide scale introduction of domestic Alberta casinos. Participation in slot machines appears to
be relatively stable in the past 10 years, whereas VLT participation appears to have declined
since the early 1990s. Bingo and horse racing have experienced declining participation
throughout this time period. By contrast, Internet gambling was virtually nonexistent prior to
37 The online panel surveys listed in Appendix B are not included in this table, as research conducted by the present
authors has found them not to provide reliable measures of population prevalence (i.e., they produce significantly
higher rates of pathology, including problem gambling, because members of online panels are not generally
representative of the population, except on basic demographic variables. Similarly, data from the yearly Survey of
Household Spending by Statistics Canada (1997 to present) is not used because the questions asked about
combined forms of gambling together and about ‘household’ rather than individual participation/expenditure.
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