gambling in alberta - Research Services - University of Lethbridge

elatively low skilled employment categories in a wide variety of different industries. There is
also a high degree of turnover among these employees, with these individuals moving into a
similar wide variety of relatively low skilled industry sectors. The wages and working conditions
of most Alberta gambling employees do not tend to be as favourable as employees in other
sectors of the Alberta workforce. The lower wages is reflective of the fact that many gambling
employees are not highly skilled and they have tended to be somewhat younger than the
Canadian workforce.
Leisure Activity
One of the important positive impacts of gambling is that it offers entertainment value and an
additional leisure option for the population. Furthermore, the fact that the majority of people
in western countries participate in some form of gambling and that gambling revenue in many
jurisdictions is in the billions of dollars provides evidence of its value to society. Gambling is
also a popular leisure activity for Albertans. As the earlier Table 18 (p. 103) documents, the
large majority of the population has participated in one or more forms of gambling over the
past 20 years. Furthermore, as the earlier Figure 18 (p. 96) illustrates, roughly about 2.5% -
3.0% of Albertan’s after tax income is currently spent on gambling.
However, to put this leisure benefit in context it must be remembered that the purchase of
lottery tickets is actually the only ‘normative’ gambling activity for Albertans, with about 3/5
adults participating on an annual basis. All other forms are patronized by the minority of the
population: approximately 2/5 participate in raffles; 1/3 purchase instant win tickets; 1/5
engage in social gambling; 1/7 gamble at out-of-province casinos, 1/7 play slot machines; 1/8
play VLTs; 1/11 bet on sports; 1/11 purchase high risk stocks; 1/11 play casino table games;
1/20 play bingo; 1/25 bet on horse racing; and about 1/35 engage in Internet gambling. For
those who do gamble, the average number of forms engaged in was 2.4 (in 2008).
Similarly, it must also be remembered that the large majority of gambling revenue comes from
a very small percentage of the population (i.e., ~6% of the population account for 75% of the
revenue; Figure 22, p. 109). Thus, while the average annual adult Albertan expenditure on
government-sponsored gambling is currently in the range of $851 (Figure 17, p. 95), the selfreported
median and modal expenditure on gambling in 2008/2009 is only $120 per person per
year.
In addition to these behavioural indices, it is instructive to know the extent to which Albertans
report valuing gambling as a leisure activity. The 2008 population survey asked the question
“How important is gambling to you as a recreational activity?”, with response options varying
from not at all important to very important (this question was not asked in the 2009 population
survey). As seen in Table 35, despite high levels of patronage for certain forms, only 4.6% of
respondents indicated they considered gambling to be an important recreational activity for
them.
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