gambling in alberta - Research Services - University of Lethbridge

Again, other ways of organizing and reporting these impacts are possible and may be better
suited for different purposes. Because of the importance of First Nations gambling in Alberta, in
the present report impacts are organized according to sector: Government; Charity Groups;
Private Operators; Society (i.e., general Alberta populace); and First Nations.
Avoid Applying Arbitrary Monetary Values to Impacts that are Non-Monetary in
Nature
As mentioned earlier, it is a mistake not to capture social impacts that do not have significant
monetary consequences. However, it is also a mistake to try to capture them within a costbenefit
economic framework by applying an arbitrary monetary value to them. This approach is
an overextension of an economic worldview that fails to recognize that the true nature of the
impact is largely non-monetary/economic in nature.
In most cases, social impacts are best quantified and reported simply by means of percentage
change in the variable and/or the actual number of people impacted (e.g., % change in rate of
problem gambling, % change in crime, change in pattern of leisure behaviour, etc.).
Create a Profile of the Economic and Social Impacts
The advantage of a common metric (e.g., money) is that it potentially allows for the
combination of all impacts into an overall aggregate value. However, as mentioned, this
approach is problematic because of a) difficulties applying monetary values to many social
impacts, b) the need to construe everything as either a cost or benefit, c) the
inappropriateness of using money as a way of characterizing the nature and magnitude of some
social impacts (e.g., suicide).
Thus, in most cases the best way of treating these impacts is to simply list them and to create a
profile of impacts. For most social impacts, reporting the percentage change in the variable
and/or the percentage of people impacted is most descriptive. For many of the economic
impacts a monetary value can be used to quantify the magnitude of the effect within each
impact area. There can also be value in aggregating the monetary amounts within and/or
across economic impact areas.
Apply Basic Economic Principles to Evaluate the Positive or Negative Nature of the
Economic Impacts
One of the critiques of many socioeconomic approaches to gambling is that they fail to
adequately consider important economic principles in judging the overall impacts (Walker
2003, 2008a, 2008d; Walker & Barnett, 1999). For example, several costs of gambling in the
Anieski & Braatan (2008) framework (e.g., theft, unemployment, costs of treating problem
gamblers) are unlikely to result in any real reduction in the economic wealth within a
society/jurisdiction; rather, just transfers of wealth within society (Eadington, 2003; Walker,
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