gambling in alberta - Research Services - University of Lethbridge

very small percentage of people in each group with very high expenditures. Hence the higher
regressivity of gambling revenue (that still occurs with median expenditure) is essentially
inconsequential for the large majority of people. This serves to remind us that problem
gambling status is a much stronger predictor of gambling expenditure (see Table 22b, p. 111)
than is income.
Personal Income
Category
Table 38: Past Year Reported Expenditure on Gambling in Alberta by
Personal Income Group in 2008/2009.
Average Past
Year
Gambling
Expenditure
% of Income
Average Past
Year
Expenditure
Represents
Median Past
Year
Gambling
Expenditure
% of Income
Median Past
Year
Expenditure
Represents
154
% of Total Past
Year Reported
Expenditures
Less than $20,000 $1,982 9.9% $120 0.6% 26.4%
$20,000 to $40,000 $1,109 3.7% $144 0.5% 21.1%
$50,000 to $70,000 $1,254 2.1% $144 0.2% 21.3%
$80,000 to $100,000 $981 1.1% $180 0.2% 9.9%
$110,000 and Higher $2,280 1.8% $168 0.1% 21.3%
Note: Income group was self-reported, with the person asked to indicate to the nearest $10,000 how much
personal income they made in the past calendar year.
Attitudes
An argument can be made that the general public’s current support or non-support of gambling
is as important as gambling’s objective beneficial or detrimental effects. Attitudes toward
gambling have not been assessed as frequently as participation rates or problem gambling
prevalence. In ‘modern times’, the first population survey that inquired about Albertan’s
attitudes toward legal gambling was done in 1992 (see Appendix B for details). In that year
1,277 adult Albertans were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement “There
is too much legal gambling in Alberta”. As can be seen in Figure 32, in 1992 more people
disagreed with this statement than agreed. 70 However, this survey was carried out when there
were only 7 casinos offering just table games, and before the introduction of VLTs (in March of
that year), slot machines, and satellite bingo.
70 Agree and disagree response options have been collapsed into just Agree or Disagree categories. Original
response options were: strongly disagree, moderately disagree, slightly disagree, slightly agree, moderately agree,
strongly agree.