gambling in alberta - Research Services - University of Lethbridge

2. The economic activity increases or decreases the value of existing assets.
This generally does not apply to gambling, or to entertainment industries more generally, as
gambling primarily involves a transfer of wealth rather than a creation of wealth. However, it
can occur when the introduction of a new gambling venue either increases or decreases the
market value of neighbouring property. However, there is no clear evidence of this in Alberta.
3. The economic activity produces increased or decreased utilization of existing money.
Money that sits dormant has very little economic utility. In general, money has increased
economic value as a function of the number of people that use the money and the speed of the
cash flow from one person/sector to the next.
Increased monetary flow is theoretically possible with Alberta gambling, as a) gambling has
served to add a new and interesting service/good to the economy which stimulates monetary
flow, and b) gambling revenue that is received by the provincial government and charity
groups tends to be ‘spent’ within a short period of time on government and charity services.
There are only indirect ways of assessing whether increased monetary flow has occurred. One
source of evidence would be if there are increased revenues and employment in the gambling
industry (and potentially supporting/complementary industries) without there being offsetting
declines in the revenues and employment in other industries. Increased utilization of existing
money is more likely to occur if gambling patronage comes from individuals who are not
financing their gambling by reducing their spending on other activities (i.e., the income class of
the patronage potentially speaks to this).
In general, the increased gambling revenue that has occurred is not associated with any
obvious declines in other industries (other than minor impacts on horse racing and bingo), nor
any significant stimulation/benefit to other industries. On the other hand, most of the people
contributing to Alberta gambling revenue are not people expected to have significant amounts
of discretionary/unallocated income that would ensure they are not simply redirecting their
expenditures away from other goods and services. Nonetheless, the weight of the evidence
would tend to support a net increase in monetary circulation, and thereby an economic benefit
to Alberta. However, it is a relatively small benefit to the Alberta economy. Even if none of this
$2.5 billion dollars was at the expense of other industries, it only represents 1% or less of
Alberta GDP.
4. The new economic activity strengthens or weakens sectors of the economy capable of
influencing #1, #2, or #3.
One of the potential concerns with gambling in Alberta (or government-controlled gambling
more generally) is that it may redirect money from wealth-producing sectors (i.e., private
business) to sectors not known for wealth creation (i.e., government, charity) (e.g., Gwartney et
al., 1998). This may be a bit unfair, as a small portion of provincial government revenue is
277