gambling in alberta - Research Services - University of Lethbridge

While the above described approach has much utility, it also has several important limitations.
For one, as mentioned earlier, most gambling opportunities in Alberta were gradually
introduced and gradually expanded. There are actually only a few events that represent a
sudden and significant change in gambling availability that would potentially allow a clearer
before/after comparison (with casino openings being the best example of this 1 ). Consequently,
many of our analyses are correlational and/or descriptive in nature, which is a weaker basis for
identifying causal relationships. Furthermore, in a dynamic and complex economy there are a
myriad of economic and social forces at work that influence things such as employment,
bankruptcy, crime, business counts, etc., making the disentanglement of these impacts and
their attribution to gambling very difficult.
Another limitation is that almost all forms of gambling in Alberta (i.e., lottery, instant win
tickets, sports betting, VLTs, Bingo, horse race betting) have been pervasively introduced and
evenly distributed, which does not permit the use of control regions/groups. The only types of
gambling with some degree of regional variation in Alberta are casinos and racing
entertainment centres (RECs) (racetracks with slot machines).
Direct Investigation of the Known Impacts
The above approach investigates potential impacts of gambling as reflected in changes in
general socioeconomic indicators. Our second strategy is the direct examination and
documentation of the immediate and known impacts of gambling. Specifically:
Direct Employment as a result of new gambling facilities or types of gambling (i.e., number
of new employees; wages; residency; comparison to previous employment status to
determine extent to which these jobs are ‘new’ rather than just shifted from other
industries).
Direct Revenue as a result of this new form of gambling.
Disbursement of Direct Revenue
o Percentage and amount to: Provincial Government, Federal Government,
Charity/Community Groups, Private Sector Venue Operators, First Nations
Groups
o Disbursement of revenue within each of these sectors.
Infrastructure Investment made by casinos and other major venues.
Infrastructure Costs to municipal, First Nation, and provincial governments (i.e., road
development and maintenance, utilities (power, water, sewage), fire services, police
services).
1 Unfortunately, the introduction of casinos and Racing Entertainment Centres (RECs) is often not a discrete event
either, as many of them undergo significant expansion after opening.
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