gambling in alberta - Research Services - University of Lethbridge

increased expenditures in all categories since 1997. The one negative correlation concerned an
increase in gambling expenditure coincident with a stable expenditure on reading materials
during this time period. However, virtually all categories had a negative correlation with
reading materials, as this was the one category where average reported expenditure did not
change from 1997 to 2008.
In summary, from a theoretical perspective it seems unlikely that there would be significant
impacts on private industry as a result of Alberta gambling. However, as a final check of this
hypothesis, an examination was made of changes in employment, overall number of
businesses, and business failures in specific regions of Alberta as a function of casino
introduction to that region. This approach is still somewhat problematic as even if differences
are found, it is very difficult to disentangle the contribution that gambling has amongst the
myriad of economic forces at work responsible for changes in these global economic indices.
This is especially true in situations where gambling constitutes a small part of overall GDP (i.e.,
gambling represents less than 1% of GDP in Alberta). Discussion of these 3 targeted
examinations follows.
Employment
Data from the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey was used to examine changes in overall
employment levels in selected Alberta communities as a function of casino introduction. A
limiting factor in this analysis is that data from the Labour Force Survey is only available for 5
Alberta cities and only goes back to 1987 for community level data. Nonetheless, it does permit
a reasonable test of whether casinos produce significant changes in overall community-level
employment, as there were 15 casinos introduced to these communities during this time
period. This data is presented in Table 56, with shaded cells representing casino introduction.
There are several ways of analyzing this data. One method used here is by examining the
percentage increase in employment from one year before the community received the casino
to one year after the casino opened (allowing for the fact it may take 1 year before impacts are
fully manifest). To control for the fact that employment in all these communities has increased
over time, the comparison points will be the percentage increase in employment in the 2 year
period immediately prior to this casino opening and the 2 year period subsequent to the
primary evaluation period. For example, in the case of Medicine Hat, a comparison will be
made between the employment increase from 1995 to 1997 versus the average employment
increase in 1993 to 1995 and 1998 to 2000.
The data showed slightly greater increases in employment in the casino introduction period
compared to the control periods. For example, there was a 5.6% increase in employment in
Edmonton subsequent to casino introduction compared to a 1.8% increase in the comparison
periods; a 6.8% increase in Calgary employment levels subsequent to casino introduction
compared to a 6.0% increase in the comparison periods; an 8.0% increase in Medicine Hat
compared to 7.4% in the comparison periods; a 9.5% increase in Red Deer compared to a 9.5%
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