gambling in alberta - Research Services - University of Lethbridge

QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF IMPACTS
As mentioned in our Research Approach, a focused examination of changes occurring in
communities receiving new casinos is both an important methodological strategy by which to
measure impacts, as well as being one of the more important results within our larger mandate.
Considerable quantitative data has already been presented on this issue. The purpose of the
present section is to supplement this quantitative data with qualitative information obtained
through key informant interviews.
Members of the Research Team met with 65 different mayors, police officials, city planners,
municipal administrators, directors of addiction treatment centres, and political representatives
in 20 different communities in Alberta: Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Calgary, Edmonton,
Camrose, Red Deer, Fort McMurray, Grande Prairie, Cold Lake, Whitecourt, Lloydminster,
Vegreville, Drayton Valley, Lacombe, St. Albert, Tsuu T’ina Nation, Enoch Cree Nation, Alexis
Nakoda Nation, Cold Lake First Nation, and Stoney Nation. (Note: results from the latter 5
communities are reported in the First Nations section).
Research Assistants initiated contact through telephone, email, and formal letters inviting
individuals to participate. Mayors from the following 9 communities that hosted casinos were
invited: Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, St. Albert, Grande Prairie,
Fort McMurray and Camrose. Two mayors chose not to participate: the mayor of Calgary and
the mayor of Fort McMurray. A large number of community representatives from all
cities/towns with casinos were also invited to participate in a telephone interview, and we
succeeded in speaking with individuals from all provincial municipalities that hosted casinos.
Through word-of-mouth we also extended interviews to community based Economic
Development Officers and Health Officials (where they existed). The directors of several
treatment and educational centres were also invited to participate, as were RCMP and regional
police officers assigned to patrol and interface with casino management in each host
community. 92
The purpose of these meetings was to solicit and record participants’ general thoughts about
the nature and magnitude of any gambling-related impacts they have observed in their
communities. Particular focus was given to communities that recently received casinos.
The general format of the interviews involved the researcher engaging the participant in a
discussion while posing a number of pre-determined questions designed to keep the
interviewer attuned to the major themes being investigated. An attempt was made to elicit the
participants’ stories which, in this instance, act as a source of understanding (Cortazzi, 2001).
Ferrier has argued, “knowledge is constructed by people and groups of people; reality is
multiperspectival; truth is grounded in everyday life and social relations; life is a text but
92 There is some potential for responder bias in these interviews as representatives who were willing to talk to us
may have had stronger opinions (one way or the other) on the issues.
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