gambling in alberta - Research Services - University of Lethbridge

7% of problem gamblers (in Alberta in 2008/2009) report committing crimes because of
gambling (primarily domestic violence, fraud, theft); b) Gambling venues offer increased
opportunities for illegal activity to occur (e.g., passing counterfeit money, money laundering,
cheating-at-play, loan sharking); c) Casinos serve alcohol and thus contribute to alcohol-related
offences (e.g., driving while intoxicated); d) Casinos are believed to attract a clientele with
somewhat greater criminal tendencies; e) Destination casinos attract more visitors to the area,
and this added population is not typically taken into account when determining a jurisdiction’s
crime rate per capita.
However, offsetting this is the fact that a) Problem gamblers only represent 2 – 3% of the
population (i.e., 7% of 2 – 3% represents only 0.2% of the population); b) Legalized gambling is
only partly responsible for problem gambling; c) The mental health and substance use
comorbidities of problem gamblers also contribute to their propensity for criminal activity; d) It
is possible that alcohol-related offences would have still occurred in other alcohol-providing
establishments; and e) Legalized gambling has unambiguously decreased the rates of illegal
gambling in Alberta.
The limited empirical data available suggests that only a very small percentage of crime is
gambling related.
Impacts of Legal Gambling on Private Industry
The private sector has benefited financially from their partnership with the provincial
government and community groups in the provision of legal gambling. However, although
central to the provision of gambling in Alberta, private sector gambling providers receive a
comparatively small percentage of the net revenue (~16% - 17% in past 10 years with horse
racing industry receiving an additional 2% in the past few years).
Alberta citizens are directly and indirectly the beneficiaries of much of the roughly $450 - $500
million that the private sector receives annually. This is because a sizeable portion of these
profits are spent on wages to staff the casinos, VLT venues, lottery outlets, and the various
employees involved in the horse racing industry. Another significant portion of these profits is
spent on local supplies.
The private sector is also responsible for adding to the wealth of Alberta via the capital
investment it has made in casino properties, estimated to be worth well over 1 billion dollars.
These new casinos have had no obvious impact on property values, although a thorough
investigation of this issue was not conducted.
In jurisdictions where private operators are the primary beneficiaries of gambling revenue it is
important to establish exactly how much of this revenue is spent on wages and local supplies,
and how much leaves the jurisdiction to shareholders and to purchase out-of-jurisdiction
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