Alberta Gambling Research Institute
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Item Open Access The Hidden Harms of Single-Event Sports Betting in Ontario(Cardus Work and Economics, 2024-09) Lewis, JohannaSports betting is everywhere. Since single-event sports betting was legalized in Canada in 2021, sports games have become saturated by gambling messages. A recent study found that viewers were exposed to 2.8 references to sports betting every minute of the live sports broadcasts the researchers studied. On average, more than one fifth (21.6 percent) of viewing time included some form of gambling reference. Viewers are starting to get fed up. An Ipsos survey in January 2023 found that almost half (48 percent) of Canadians believe that the number of sports-betting ads is excessive. When asked whether there should be limits on the number and placement of ads, nearly two-thirds (63 percent) agreed.Item Open Access How Big Is Canada’s Black Market for Sports Betting?(Cardus Work and Economics, 2024-09) Lewis, Johanna[A Cardus Research Brief] One of the arguments made when single-event sports betting was legalized in Canada in 2021 was that people were going to bet on sports anyway, so why not make it safer to do so, and taxable? There’s an element of truth to this. Regulation does allow for government oversight and improved play protections, and it’s better for gambling revenue to go to problem-gambling treatment and other government programs than to organized crime. Yet there are several problems with the argument. For one, it presents gambling demand as basically inelastic: people have a certain amount they want to bet on sports, and that’s the amount they’re going to bet, regardless of the legal conditions for doing so. But gambling corporations (including government-owned corporations such as OLG) clearly don’t believe demand for their product is inelastic, given that they spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year trying to stoke demand through advertising.Item Open Access Research reveals ... : an update on gambling research in Alberta, 2024-2025(Alberta Gambling Research Institute, 2024-07-02) Alberta Gambling Research InstituteItem Open Access Alberta Gambling Research Institute Conference 2024: Trends & Challenges in Gambling Research(Alberta Gambling Research Institute, 2024-04) Albright-Tolman, Jami; Allami, Youssef; Belanger, Yale; Billi, Rosa; Brazeau, Brad; Bryce, Helen; Balla, Laura; Christensen, Darren; Clark, Luke; Dixon, Mike; Dowling, Nicki; Euston, David; Hodgins, David; Keene, Dan; Laskowski, Catherine; McGrath, Dan; Nicoll, Fiona; Aitken, Rob; Pfund, Rory; Sharman, Stephen; Shaw, Carrie; Stark, Sasha; Turner, Nigel; Vieira, Jenna; Volberg, Rachel; Williams, Robert; Wohl, MichaelThe Institute’s 2024 Conference "Trends & Challenges in Gambling Research" took place April 11-13, 2024 at The Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta as a live event. A selection of conference presentations presented at the event have been made available with the permission of the authors.Item Open Access Gambling Policy Framework(Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 2024-03-27) Centre for Addiction and Mental HealthThis document presents the latest evidence around gambling-related harms and the policies that can mitigate them. The overarching message of the Framework is that to reduce gambling-related harms, focus must shift from the individual who gambles to the context in which gambling takes place. To that end, it proposes nine evidence-informed recommendations towards a public health approach to gambling.Item Open Access Exploring the prevalence of gambling marketing: An analysis of the prevalence of marketing across televised and social media coverage of NBA and NHL in Ontario(University of Bristol, 2024-01) Wheaton, Jamie; Rossi, Raffaello; Moxey, Maria; Tozzi, Edoardo; Moradipour, SaeidThis report details the findings of a joint project undertaken as a collaboration between University of Bristol and CBC News. The project deployed well-established data collection and analytic methods to explore the prevalence of gambling-related marketing on television (as broadcasted in Ontario) and social media during basketball (NBA) and ice hockey (NHL) matches between the 25th and 29th of October 2023.Item Open Access Annual report 2022-23, Alberta Gambling Research Institute(Alberta Gambling Research Institute, 2023-11-29) Alberta Gambling Research InstituteItem Open Access 2019 Prince Edward Island Gambling Prevalence Study(Maritime SPOR SUPPORT Unit (MSSU), 2021-07) MacSwain Standing, Mary-Ann; Kydd, RobynIn 2018, the Prince Edward Island (PEI) Department of Health and Wellness contracted the PEI Maritime SPOR SUPPORT Unit (MSSU) to study the prevalence of gambling and problem gambling in Prince Edward Island. The primary purpose of this study was to provide updated prevalence estimates for gambling and at-risk gambling, examine the socio-demographic characteristics associated with at-risk gambling, and identify potential subgroups of at-risk gamblers for more in-depth study. Due to expansion of the availability of online gambling in recent years, an additional objective was to estimate the prevalence of in-person and online gambling, and to examine the socio-demographic characteristics and gambling behaviours associated with different methods of access.Item Open Access A review of BCLC’s voluntary self-exclusion program: Client behaviours, experiences, and perceptions(British Columbia Lottery Corporation, 2022-08) McCormick, Amanda V.; Cohen, Irwin M.; Davies, GarthExecutive Summary: The objectives of this study were to assess the experiences and perceptions of VSE program participants and to measure the effects of the program on their gambling. In addition, BCLC was interested in learning about the various informal and formal supports used by VSE clients during their exclusion and the effects of the VSE program on client’s quality of life. Another objective was to understand more about the factors that contribute to program violation attempts. In addition, there was interest in understanding at what point during the exclusion period do VSE clients experience reductions in problem gambling symptoms, if at all. Given these objectives, the current study offered VSE clients participation in several telephone interviews along with a weekly online survey. As with the prior studies conducted by these authors on BCLC’s VSE program, participants were introduced to the study during their enrollment into the land-based VSE program. Those who consented to participate in the study were contacted by members of the research team to schedule a telephone interview. Study participants were recruited between May 2019 and March 2020 at which point recruitment for the study concluded because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of formal gaming venues across British Columbia. During the recruitment period, 3,911 people enrolled or re-enrolled into the VSE program. In total, 6.6% of these clients (n = 262) consented to have their name forwarded to the research team, and 3.3% (n = 128) participated in the first interview.Item Open Access Research reveals ... : an update on gambling research in Alberta, 2023-2024(Alberta Gambling Research Institute, 2023-07) Alberta Gambling Research InstituteItem Open Access Alberta Gambling Research Institute Conference 2023: Contemporary Issues in Gambling Research(Alberta Gambling Research Institute, 2023-04-01) Allami, Yousseff; Bedford, Kate; Hodgins, David; Indige-Spheres Youth Group; Kim, Andrew; Manitowabi, Darrel; McGrath, Dan; Naraine, Michael; Newall, Philip; Nicoll, Fiona; Shaw, Carrie; Stevens, Rhys; Volberg, Rachel; Williams, Robert; Busenius, Andree; Gordon, Ted; Krutz, Jonathan; Lee, Bonnie; Lloyd, Joanne; McLuhan, Arthur; Stark, Sasha; Supan, Savannah; Matheson, Flora; Ford, Madison; Papineau, ElisabethThe Institute’s 2023 Conference "Contemporary Issues in Gambling Research" took place March 30 to April 1, 2023 at The Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta as a hybrid live and virtual event. A selection of conference presentations presented at the event have been made available with the permission of the authors.Item Open Access Annual report 2021-22, Alberta Gambling Research Institute(Alberta Gambling Research Institute, 2022-11-24) Alberta Gambling Research InstituteItem Open Access Research reveals ... : an update on gambling research in Alberta, 2022-2023(2022-10) Alberta Gambling Research InstituteItem Open Access Alberta Gambling Research Institute Conference 2022: Back to the Centre: Back to the Future of Gambling Research(2022-06) Baxter, David; Bedford, Kate; Belanger, Yale; Brodeur, Magaly; Christensen, Darren; Dowling, Nicki; Gray, Heather; Hing, Nerilee; Johnson, Mark; Jonsson, Jakob; Kim, Andrew; Kostek, Riley; Manitowabi, Darrel; Murch, W. Spencer; Shaw, Carrie; Stevens, Rhys; Volberg, Rachel; Wilcox, Sean; Williams, Robert; Yakovenko, Igor; Young, MatthewThe Alberta Gambling Research Institute's 21st Annual Conference "Back to the Centre: Back to the Future of Gambling Research" took place June 23 - 25, 2022 at the Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta as a hybrid live and virtual event. A selection of conference presentations presented at the event have been made available with the permission of the authors.Item Open Access Gambling in Canada: Statistics 2020-2021(2022-04-22) Stevens, RhysStatistics about gambling in Canada for fiscal year 2020-21 (April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021) compiled from annual reports of government organizations responsible for conducting, managing and regulating in each of Canada’s provinces and territories.Item Open Access Annual report 2020-21, Alberta Gambling Research Institute(Alberta Gambling Research Institute, 2021-12-08) Alberta Gambling Research InstituteItem Open Access Turning Aces into Assets: Four Options to Help the Government Turn its Addiction to Gambling Revenue into Assets for the Poor(Cardus, 2021-05) Lewis, Johanna; Dijkema, BrianGovernment-run gambling is ripe for reform. In our previous report, “Pressing Its Luck,” we examined the ways in which the state’s gambling monopoly operates as a tax on the marginalized - preying on the poor and those who are playing hard to join them. We concluded by offering four policy reforms that could help provinces kick their addiction to regressive gambling profits and build a system that works for, not against, low-income households. Here, we provide a more detailed framework for recovery by exploring each policy option in depth. Returning annual gambling profits to the poor through cash transfers is one option. A second is to promote asset building through a matched savings program. Governments can also work with financial institutions to offer prize-linked savings products, an innovative way to help families build emergency savings funds. Finally, given that gambling profits are drawn disproportionately from problem gamblers, we argue that governments should increase funding for problem-gambling research, prevention, and treatment out of provincial gambling corporations’ marketing budgets.Item Open Access Pressing Its Luck: How Ontario Lottery and Gaming Can Work For, Not Against, Low-Income Households(Cardus, 2020-06-10) Dijkema, Brian; Wolfert, JohannaIn this paper, we tell the story of Ontario’s involvement with gambling and explore how it got hooked. The state has not always been the leading dealer in gambling or user of the revenue it produces. In fact, gaming’s path from an illegal and suppressed activity to a legal one, and its eventual transmogrification into a lean, mean, revenue machine having the government’s full support and encouragement, was circuitous and filled with ironies and unintended consequences.Item Open Access Royally Flushed: Reforming Gambling to Work for, Not Against, Atlantic Canada(Cardus, 2020-07-15) Dijkema, Brian; Wolfert, JohannaIn Royally Flushed: Reforming Gambling to Work for, Not Against, Atlantic Canada, think tank Cardus shows how the lowest-income households in the Atlantic provinces pay their provincial governments an estimated 4% of their annual incomes through gambling – twice the proportion that the wealthiest Atlantic Canadians hand over to governments though games of chance. Atlantic provinces’ income tax systems, by contrast, tax the wealthiest families at nearly 10 times the rate of the region’s poorest.Item Open Access Royally Flushed: Reforming gambling to work for, not against, Alberta(Cardus, 2020-07-15) Dijkema, Brian; Wolfert, JohannaIn Royally Flushed: Reforming gambling to work for, not against, Alberta, think tank Cardus shows how the lowest-income households in Alberta pay the provincial government an estimated 7% of their annual incomes through gambling – triple the proportion that the wealthiest Albertans hand over to the government though games of chance. Alberta’s income tax system, by contrast, taxes the wealthiest families at nearly five times the rate of the province’s poorest.