gambling in alberta - Research Services - University of Lethbridge

Red Deer officials reported that the casino is also a primary stop for young men working in the
natural resources industries looking to spend their disposable income. At Camrose, the casino
is seen as a quiet alternative to the larger Edmonton casinos, which is said to be attractive to
many regular patrons.
In general, very few people had moral or ethical objections to gambling. That does not mean
that they did not cite significant social costs, however.
Problem Gambling, Crime, and Strain on Social Infrastructure
Gambling was often portrayed as a drain on local resources due to increased crime and
increased problem gambling. In Edmonton community representatives indicated problem
gambling was contributing to a “lack of attention of kids at home, family violence at home ... all
those kinds of things have phenomenal impact on families,” which in turn impacts local service
delivery. Lethbridge officials expressed similar concerns, specifically an increase in “family
violence, and increased amount of gambling problems at home, and as a result of that, more
work for our police department.” Most individuals indicated that problem gambling was a
significant cause of family breakdown leading to increased costs for social services. For
example, an official from St. Albert stated, “We’ve had our fair share of family breakdown and
financial bankruptcies associated with gambling addictions”. An official from Edmonton stated
“we were seeing a fair amount of increase in our service centers of people reporting addiction
issues that related to gambling” adding that “the whole issue of VLT addictions was really not
something anybody I think really anticipated.” From Red Deer one official concluded, “It’s the
problem gambling that creates the issues for our communities and for our individuals in the
communities.” The most vocal of those interviews was a Calgary official, who concluded that
gambling “leads to family breakdown, bankruptcies and in certain cases, family violence and
that kind of stuff. Now in terms of casino revenues of course, a chunk of those go back to help
those agencies deal with that, but it’s kind of a stupid thing when you sit back and look at it –
here we are creating problems by allowing casinos to exist and be readily accessible and we
acknowledge that there are problems that arise because of that so we’ll some money back into
treating those problems. It’s a bit stupid.” In Lethbridge an official stated “the poor and the
disadvantaged are disproportionately impacted ... wealthy people may gamble larger sums, but
the people who are impacted most harmed are those who can least afford it.” An official in
advance of our telephone interview called a local Alberta Health official for more information,
and conveyed to us that “the casino itself contributes very little social problems according to
the people that I’ve talked to... now, … once it gets into the VLTs … those are another problem.”
Outside of eliminating the provincial gaming industry outright, which 3 individuals proposed,
several recommendations were offered to combat the situation. Several people suggested
expanding existing treatment programs by allocating a larger portion of annual provincial
gambling revenues. In Red Deer, community representatives suggested additional educational
programs were needed to inform people of the risks of gambling too much. The Edmonton
mayor recommended establishing telephone help lines for people with gambling problems or
family violence problems related to gambling.
216