gambling in alberta - Research Services - University of Lethbridge

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The wages and working conditions of most Alberta gambling employees do not tend to be as favourable as employees in other sectors of the Alberta workforce. The lower wages are reflective of the fact that many gambling employees are not highly skilled and they have tended to be somewhat younger than the Canadian workforce. Leisure Activity More than 70% of the Alberta adult population has participated in gambling on an annual basis for the past 20 years. However, participation in certain forms of gambling is considerably higher than in other forms. While about 3/5 people purchase lottery tickets and 2/5 participate in raffles; only about 1/3 of people purchase instant win tickets; 1/5 engage in social gambling; 1/7 gamble at out-of-province casinos or play slot machines; 1/8 play VLTs; 1/11 bet on sports, purchase high risk stocks, or play casino table games; 1/20 play bingo; 1/25 bet on horse racing; and about 1/35 engage in Internet gambling. There have been major declines in bingo and horse racing participation in the past 20 years and more minor declines in participation in lotteries, raffles, and VLTs. Participation rates have been fairly stable for instant win tickets and slot machines. Internet gambling, out-of-province casinos, and possibly casino table games are the only formats that have shown an increase. The fact that most Albertans have participated in some form of gambling in the past year provides evidence that certain forms of gambling (primarily lotteries and raffles) are valued leisure activities. A minority of Albertans participate in multiple forms of gambling on a frequent basis. These are also the individuals most likely to report that gambling is actually an important recreational activity to them (something that only 4.6% of Albertans report). Quality of Life From a theoretical perspective it is unrealistic to anticipate gambling to have population wide impacts on quality of life, when regular gambling involvement occurs in just a small percentage of the population and remembering that about 25% of people do not gamble at all. The possible exceptions to this are reserve communities hosting an economically successful casino, where widespread economic and social benefits typically occur. At an individual level, the evidence from population surveys indicates that nongamblers are somewhat more likely to be ‘very happy’ compared to gamblers and that over-involvement in gambling (i.e., problem gambling) is associated with less happiness and more stress. However, there are several other things that are more predictive of happiness compared to gambling. Also, when excluding nongamblers and problem gamblers from the analysis, there is no significant association between level of gambling involvement and level of happiness and essentially no meaningful association between level of stress and level of gambling involvement. 264
Socioeconomic Inequality Alberta gambling revenue is regressive, with lower income groups spending proportionally more of their income on gambling relative to higher income groups. That being said, lower income groups spend proportionally more of their income on most consumer products. Furthermore, higher income groups contribute proportionally more to overall Alberta gambling revenue compared to lower income groups. Attitudes Legalized gambling has created more negative attitudes toward gambling. Most people (~70%) are satisfied with how the provincial government manages gambling and how the government’s gambling revenues are used. Furthermore, only a minority of people (~30%) believe that gambling is morally wrong. However, most people believe that the harm of gambling outweighs the benefits (~70%); that gambling is too widely available (~53% compared to 2% who believe it is not available enough); that certain forms should be illegal (~60%; with EGMs, animal fighting, casino table games, and Internet gambling being the forms most commonly identified); and that their local casino has been more harmful (~43%) rather than beneficial (~33%). The somewhat less negative attitude toward one’s local casino is likely reflective of the fact that a large number of local charity/community groups receive their funding from this casino(s). There is also significant regional variability in attitudes toward the local casino, with the ratio of harmful beliefs relative to beneficial beliefs being twice as high in some communities relative to others. The Medicine Hat region is unique in being the only region where more people believe the local casino is more beneficial than harmful. A final analysis established there were no changes in attitudes toward the local casinos from 2008 to 2009 in areas that had recently received casinos (Camrose, Cold Lake, Whitecourt, Morley) compared to areas that had had casinos for many years (Lethbridge, Fort McMurray, Red Deer, Medicine Hat, Grande Prairie). Problem Gambling The widespread introduction of legalized gambling has probably had a modest impact on problem gambling, with these impacts primarily occurring in the years after initial legal introduction. It is important to recognize that significant rates of problem gambling likely existed in Alberta even prior to legal availability. However, it is also true that legalization of a product tends to increase the legitimacy and availability of the product. This, in turn, a) increases overall participation, resulting in additional cases of problem gambling, and b) tends to exacerbate the harms of problem gambling because of the greater availability of the product (particularly the availability of EGMs). 265
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Plant fertilizer 2011 GAMBLING IN A
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Citation Williams, R.J., Belanger,
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AMOUNTS, ORIGINS, AND RECIPIENTS OF
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ABSTRACT At a provincial level, the
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Alberta is estimated to have 3,755,
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than empirical in nature. Thus, the
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While the above described approach
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census. A supplemental Online Gener
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THEORETICAL APPROACH PROBLEMS WITH
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Aside from these practical issues,
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SOUND PRINCIPLES FOR CONDUCTING SOC
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Again, other ways of organizing and
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4. The transfer of wealth and chang
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Compare Changes to those Observed i
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to document prior gambling opportun
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Mid 1700s to late 1800s 1869 - 1892
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Cheating at gambling (Part XXVIII F
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1924 Criminal Code amendment to s.9
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1957 Western Canadian Racing Associ
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1980s There is a major expansion of
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1989 In June the Criminal Code of C
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1997 AGLC allows the number of slot
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2003 Federal agriculture minister m
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HISTORY OF EACH TYPE OF GAMBLING Th
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Number of Live Race Days per Year I
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Table 1: Total Raffle Licences per
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Table 2: Total Pull-Ticket Licences
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Table 3: Total Bingo Licences per Y
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Table 5: Total Bingo Events per Yea
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Table 6: Total Lottery Ticket Retai
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Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) In A
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Table 8: Total Video Lottery Locati
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1996 Slot machines and electronic h
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The main indices that speak to chan
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Table 12: Total Charitable Casino L
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REGULATORY AND ORGANIZATIONAL HISTO
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HISTORY OF FIRST NATIONS COMMERCIAL
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CURRENT REGULATION, AVAILABILITY, A
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aggregate value of all tickets sold
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ALBERTA GOVERNMENT GAMBLING The Cri
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CASINOS Traditional Casinos Casinos
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percentage of table game revenue re
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Figure 15. Location of Current and
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HORSE RACING Horse racing is the on
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Bingo Lotteries and Instant Win (Sc
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AMOUNTS, ORIGINS, AND RECIPIENTS OF
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Another way of looking at the overa
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increase has occurred since the ear
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WHERE IS THE MONEY COMING FROM? As
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Figure 20: Proportion of Alberta Ne
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Origin of Net Gambling Revenue by D
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Table 18: Past Year Gambling Partic
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EGM Players Table 20 shows reasonab
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Table 21: Percentage of Each Type o
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winsorized then 75% of reported exp
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Table 22a: Demographic Profile of t
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patronage and revenue. Attendance f
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However, less important than the ac
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Because of the paramount importance
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Actual Revenue Another source of da
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Figure 25: Average Ticket Lottery R
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WHERE IS THE MONEY GOING? The final
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industry. The proportion of gamblin
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Table 27: Grants Awarded by Alberta
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since 1999; 47% of all revenue in 2
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IMPACTS OF LEGAL GAMBLING IMPACTS O
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‘addicted to gambling revenue’.
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Several factors influence the perce
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There are also some important lesso
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Figure 30: Proportion of Total Net
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Figure 31: Number of Charities per
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IMPACTS ON SOCIETY The citizens of
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Number of Alberta Gambling Employee
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Table 34: North American Industry C
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Table 35: Importance of Gambling as
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percentage of the population (i.e.,
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Table 37: Household Past Year Repor
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40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% F
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Although Albertans are satisfied wi
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A final attitude question asked in
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Figure 41: What sort of overall imp
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Prevalence Problem Gambling and Rel
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Williams & Volberg (2010) also calc
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Features of Problem Gamblers The ty
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significant change in reported casi
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Table 43: Gambling and Problem Gamb
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their shared variance is taken into
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Treatment Numbers and Costs Treatme
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The only readily available figures
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OSB reports there were a total of 7
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Table 49: Consumer Insolvency Rates
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Another approach is to establish th
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that gambling had resulted in separ
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Applying these prevalence rates to
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gambling-related illegal acts and 8
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It is important to remember that th
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Table 52: Criminal Charges Laid by
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early 1990s, that was followed by a
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Table 54: Correlation between Crime
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Infrastructure Value The private se
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With respect to this first possibil
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increase in the comparison periods;
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Census Division Table 57: Business
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versus 2.2%). Commercial insolvency
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thinking in an interpretative act;
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The Edmonton mayor indicated he bel
Page 213 and 214: Several community representatives a
Page 215 and 216: daytime usage ... if it’s shoppin
Page 217 and 218: Increased crime was a related issue
Page 219 and 220: IMPACT ON FIRST NATIONS The impact
Page 221 and 222: Table 59: Use of First Nations Char
Page 223 and 224: Table 60: Distributions to Differen
Page 225 and 226: Table 60 illustrates that the large
Page 227 and 228: McKay, Heart Lake and the Athabasca
Page 229 and 230: Geographical Distribution As seen i
Page 231 and 232: Figure 51: Average Per Community FN
Page 233 and 234: Employment and Income Impacts of Fi
Page 235 and 236: etter skilled individuals in the co
Page 237 and 238: Problem Gambling A recent review of
Page 239 and 240: Table 65: Prevalence of Problem Gam
Page 241 and 242: $500 chip. One municipal official c
Page 243 and 244: Both the increased affluence and th
Page 245 and 246: The Enoch Cree Nation has to pay ba
Page 247 and 248: The fire department also represents
Page 249 and 250: chances. One official stated that t
Page 251 and 252: With the exception of 2006-2007, th
Page 253 and 254: Post-Script: Barriers to Participat
Page 255 and 256: (Indian Act, 1985). The latter coul
Page 257 and 258: SUMMARY Research Approach The prese
Page 259 and 260: 1% (or less) of Alberta GDP since t
Page 261 and 262: can be said of charitable gambling
Page 263: Because revenue from charity casino
Page 267 and 268: Despite the relatively low rates of
Page 269 and 270: supplies/equipment or to reinvest i
Page 271 and 272: Some of these sentiments tend to su
Page 273 and 274: communities highlight the casinos a
Page 275 and 276: ASSESSMENT OF THE OVERALL IMPACTS O
Page 277 and 278: 2. The economic activity increases
Page 279 and 280: OVERALL SOCIAL IMPACTS Legalized ga
Page 281 and 282: OVERALL IMPACTS At a provincial lev
Page 283 and 284: however, that the potential for bri
Page 285 and 286: REFERENCES Abbott, M.W., Williams,
Page 287 and 288: Centre for Social and Health Outcom
Page 289 and 290: Jackson, D. (2010). VLT critic call
Page 291 and 292: Purdy, C. (2004). Band stakes its f
Page 293 and 294: Walker, D.M. (2008a). Challenges th
Page 295 and 296: 2008 Survey APPENDICES Appendix A:
Page 297 and 298: General Population Targeted INELIGI
Page 299 and 300: are interested in the opinions of b
Page 301 and 302: PAST YEAR GAMBLING BEHAVIOUR GY1a.
Page 303 and 304: GY6a. In the past 12 months, how of
Page 305 and 306: Cash Casino - Red Deer (15) Jackpot
Page 307 and 308: GY10a. In the past 12 months, how o
Page 309 and 310: GY14a. In the past 12 months, what
Page 311 and 312: GP4. CPGI4/PPGM8b. In the past 12 m
Page 313 and 314: GP11b. In the past 12 months has ga
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GP16a. PPGM8c. In the past 12 month
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The following question only asked o
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TRIANGULATION (ONLINE PANEL ONLY) T
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Exact amount________________ (17) U
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2009 Survey The 2009 survey was als
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C11. Do you have pleasant memories
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SURVEY YEAR 1992 1993 1995 1996 199
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2008 2008 2009 2009 Williams, Belan
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1 Medicine Hat 2 Lethbridge 3 Fort
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8. In the past 12 months, have you
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Appendix F: Alberta’s Economic Re
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7. A thorough due diligence investi
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