Gaming Research Weblog

Studying First Nations Casinos in Alberta [Conference Presentation]

2009-06-17T11:39:00.000-07:00

Dr. Yale Belanger presented the paper "Gambling on First Nations participation: An overview of SEIGA and barriers to First Nations engagement" at the Canadian Political Science Association conference in Ottawa on May 29th, 2009.

In his conference prsentation ,Belanger delves into the existing provincial arrangements (e.g., revenue sharing agreements, regulatory structures, etc.) that have been developed specifically for First Nations gaming in Alberta. He also provides examples identifying the methodological complexities of working with First Nations communities as related to the ongoing SEIGA project.

CBC Calgary Features Alberta Gambling [WWW & Multi-Media]

2009-05-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month -- May 1, 2009 to be precise -- CBC Calgary made available an excellent feature entitled "Alberta gambling: who wins, who loses?" The various topics include:

Timeline -- Key dates related to the development of gambling in Alberta.
Where the money goes -- A somewhat simplified chart that provides a broad view of the amount of generated gambling revenues in Alberta... also where gambling-related funds are directed.
Debtating VLTs -- A short a-v clip profiling the individuals involved in the proposed plebiscite on video lottery terminals in the Town of Rocky Mountain House, AB looks... some nice scenery of the town as well.

Historical Annual Reports Related to Government Gaming & Gambling in Alberta

2009-04-24T08:01:00.000-07:00

From experience, I can tell you that it's not particularly easy to locate current, compatible statistics related to gambling revenues from Canadian provinces (though the Canadian Gambling Digest 2007-08 does an admirable job).

It can be every bit as daunting to go back in time to dig up reports that provide historical information on gambling in the various provinces. Some of the issues you'll have to contend with include: inaccessible publications, frequent changes in government departments responsible for gaming, and report content that can be difficult to decipher.

Having said all that, anyone requiring “historical” annual reports from Alberta related to gambling will definitely want to review my Alberta - Historical Annual Reports web page . It includes a listing of reports that are available in PDF format that have been digitized (with the permission of the publishers) by the Institute Library.

For the reports that don’t have PDF links at present, I’m investigating the possibility of including these in the future. Enjoy!

"Winners and Losers" CTV W-FIVE Documentary

2009-04-07T09:14:00.001-07:00

"With experts suggesting nearly one third of the government's gambling revenue comes from problem gamblers, some wonder if enough is being done to prevent damage and despair, or is the government itself addicted to gambling?"

Continuing on the theme of Canadian gambling documentaries... CTV's W-FIVE aired an episode entitled "Winners and Losers" on March 28th, 2009. It examined the self-exclusion program in Ontario casinos and found that systems to detect self-excluded gamblers weren't particularly stringent.

NOTE: You can watch the entire re-broadcast online from the CTV web site after an obligatory advertisement.

Playing the Machines [Documentary]

2009-03-23T08:02:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, March 24 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBC NEWS: THE LENS, the documentary Playing the Machines will be airing. According to the web site:

Playing the Machines features the stories of three people: "Trailer Park Boys" actor and VLT addict, John Dunsworth; Susan Piercey, from Corner Brook, Newfoundland, a young woman who started gambling at 18 and took her life; and the late Garnet Rhyno of Halifax, "a devoted husband and father who loved life" until he became addicted to VLT's.

Playing the Machines is shot in Las Vegas, South Carolina, Halifax and St. John's and includes commentary from several gaming experts and two people who have been fighting against video lottery terminals. Newfoundland lawyer Ches Crosbie is leading a class action lawsuit that includes Keith Piercey's case about his daughter's suicide; and Richard Gergel who won the fight to ban VLT's in South Carolina for good.

Online Version of Internet Gambling Report XI

2009-03-20T08:52:00.000-07:00

The Internet Gambling Report -- Eleventh Edition (2008, October) is available online for the first time. The online edition costs substantially more than paper -- $US 595 for 12-month e-subscription vs. $US 195 for print -- but has the advantage of providing access to content from previous editions and continuing updates. For organizations where several people are accessing this content frequently, the online version might be a good option.

The site also offers a "standard subscription" for free which allows access to sample content from each chapter.

Game Integrity & Professional Sports Betting Markets [Newsletter Article]

2009-03-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

With activities such as tanking, spying, referee bias, and match fixing threatening the integrity of individual sporting events... what's a sports league to do? To help shed light on this issue from a research perspective, University of Alberta Ph.D. student Brian Soebbing is analyzing sports wagering data in an attempt to detect efforts to undermine the integrity of individual matches.

Read the full interview with Soebbing in the December 2008 / January 2009 issue of Gambling Research Reveals newsletter.

Review of Oz Gambling Research [Report]

2009-03-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

The land down under has produced a significant number of gambling reports and articles over the years. For a listing of newer research produced in Australia, take a look at the report "A Review of Australian Gambling Research" (2008, August) which was released today... well, technically yesterday if you're reading this in Australia.

The Madness of March [New Book]

2009-03-04T14:46:00.000-08:00

Item #42 on the "50 sporting things you must do before you die" listing recommends taking in the NCAA's March madness basketball tournament. If attending the event live is out of the question this year, you might instead be interested in the recently published book from the University of Nebraska Press entitled "The Madness of March: Bonding and Betting with the Boys in Las Vegas" by Alan Jay Zaremba.

"Every spring, the first four days of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament attracts a horde of basketball bettors to Las Vegas. From the tip-off of the tournament’s first game on Thursday morning to the final whistle on Sunday, throngs of bettors—overwhelmingly male—sit in smoky casinos obsessively watching as many as forty-eight college basketball games. This book immerses readers in that action. In The Madness of March: Bonding and Betting with the Boys in Las Vegas, Alan Jay Zaremba travels to The Strip and gives us a front-row view of the betting culture that surrounds the frenzied first weekend of the tournament."

Critical Literature Review of Risk Factors for Problematic Gambling [Article]

2009-03-02T11:01:00.000-08:00

The March, 2009 issue of the Journal of Gambling studies contains a number of interesting articles... but unless you have a subscription to the journal, you won't be able to read them. The one exception is the "Open Access" article entitled "Risk Factors for Problematic Gambling: A Critical Literature Review" by Johansson et al.

According to Johansson and colleagues:

"The aim of the present study was to identify the existing empirical studies regarding the risk factors for the development and maintenance of pathological gambling. This is especially important for the implementation of prevention and treatment for PG." (p.88).

They note that:

"The critical review of 35 different factors or dimensions unfolded very few ‘‘well established risk factors for PG’’ (9 factors), where the conclusions could be supported by more than two studies. These were demographic variables (age, gender), cognitive distortions (erroneous perceptions, illusion of control), sensory characteristics, schedules of reinforcement, and comorbid states (OCD, drug abuse), and delinquency/illegal acts. Many categories (22) are considered to constitute probable risk factors (1–2 supporting studies)." (p.89).

If you're wondering about why Springer, the journal publisher, allowed only this particular article to be made available for free, you should read the web page How Springer Open Choice Works.

Reports from the Queensland Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR)

2009-02-27T10:59:00.000-08:00

The Queensland, Australia Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) makes available a number of research-related reports on its Resposible Gambling page. I hadn't come acroos the following reports on their site... but I've now added links to them from the Gambling Literature Database:

The Impact of Self-Awareness and Physiological Arousal on EGM Gambling Behaviour (2007, August) -- "This report describes four experimental studies investigating psychological factors that influence betting behaviour on Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs)."
Gambling and Problem Gambling among the Chinese (2007) -- "There has been a significant gap in the gambling literature regarding the role of culture in gambling and problem gambling. The studies contained in this report intend to reduce this gap by focussing on gambling amongst the Chinese."

New Journal Issue -- Gaming Law Review and Economics (2009, February)

2009-02-25T12:01:00.000-08:00

The journal Gaming Law Review and Economics (formerly just Gaming Law Review) has just published its February 2009 issue. Article content includes:

Lessons from the Nevada Model on Macao's Junket Operations by Carlos Siu Lam and William R. Eadington
Wasn't the Gaming Law Business Supposed to Be Recession-Proof? by Lori Tripoli
The Mob Never Ran Vegas by Leslie Niño Fidance
Betfair: A Case Study on the U.S. Internet Gaming Market by David C. Williams and S. Steve Seteroff
Quantifying Skill in Games—Theory and Empirical Evidence for Poker by Ingo C. Fiedler and Jan-Philipp Rock

Addiction-Related Datasets Available From The Transparency Project

2009-02-23T13:17:00.000-08:00

Last month The Division on Addictions, Harvard Medical School, made available a site they've named The Transparency Project. The aim of the site is to establish a "home" for privately-funded datasets collected by multidisciplinary addiction researchers working throughout the world.

Many of the available datasets relate to Internet gambling and were obtained from European online gambling provider bwin Interactive Entertainment AG. Access to such data will be a real boon to researchers investigating Internet gambling as this type of information has previsouly been largely inaccessible. This data is already proving to be fertile ground for researchers as evident by the publications by dataset page.

NOTE: Datasets in the repository are accessible to"registered users." You register to be a user of the Transparency Project by emailing info@thetransparencyproject.org and providing basic information. Once you're successfully registered and have received a password, you can access and download the requested database. It is anticipated that the website will have an automated registration process in the future.

Motivational Interviewing & Problem Gambling [Training Workshop]

2007-05-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

If you're interested in an intensive evidence-based and hands-on training workshop on "Motivational Interviewing & Problem Gambling" aimed at healthcare and social service professionals, be sure to sign-up and attend the September 7, 2007 event which will take place at the University of Toronto (St. George Campus) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

It is being organized by Professional Advanced Services (PAS).

International Gambling Studies [new issue]

2007-03-09T07:23:00.000-08:00

Volume 7, Issue 1 (2007) of the journal International Gambling Studies contains the following original articles:

Between Law and Custom - Examining the Interaction between Legislative Change and the Evolution of Macao's Casino Industry
The Psychology of Risk-taking in Gambling among Chinese Visitors to Macau
The Security of Gambling and Gambling with Security: Hacking, Law Enforcement and Public Policy
Self-exclusion: A Proposed Gateway to Treatment Model
Multiple Co-occurring Behaviours among Gamblers in Treatment: Implications and Assessment
Validation of the Chinese Version of the Gambling Urges Scale (GUS-C)
The Influence of Music on Estimates of At-risk Gambling Intentions: An Analysis by Casino Design
Prospective Problem Gambling Research: Contribution and Potential

Gambling, Culture, Community and Intervention [free one-day conference]

2007-03-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

For those in the Toronto area in late March... you might want to attend what looks to be an interesting (and free!) one-day conference on "Gambling, Culture, Community and Intervention" that is being put on by COSTI Immigrant Services in partnership with the Ontario Resource Group on Gambling, Ethnicity and Culture.

Gambling in Estonia [conference]

2007-03-01T11:02:00.000-08:00

The Institute for Problem Gambling and Treatment in Estonia is hosting a conference pertaining to the "Social Responsibility of Gambling Industry Enterprises." I wasn't even aware of the Institute let alone the conference!

North Carolina Gambling Prevalence [report]

2007-02-27T11:44:00.000-08:00

The report "Effects of the North Carolina State Lottery on the Incidence of Gambling Addiction" (2007, February) was produced by the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services [North Carolina].

Interestingly, this report aims to accomplish what many researchers have been calling for withe resepect to the introduction of legalized gambling... establish a baseline measure of how many people have gambling-related problems both before gambling is introduced to a jurisdiction.

Specifically, "Legislation (House Bill 1023) that established the North Carolina State Lottery included a provision that required the Department of Health and Human Services to study its impact on the incidence of gambling addiction in the state. This report presents findings on gambling behaviors among adult North Carolinians prior to the sale of the first lottery ticket on March 30, 2006 and provides the reference against which the incidence of gambling will be measured in the future."

Casinos and Regeneration [policy paper]

2007-02-26T14:28:00.000-08:00

The Institute for Public Policy Research in the U.K.) has produced the short policy paper "Casinos and Regeneration: The story so far" (2007, February).

This Centre for Cities briefing note deconstructs the decision, before critically assessing the relationship between casinos and regeneration more generally. It focuses on the regeneration issues around supercasino development. It concludes with some lessons for Manchester.

Gaming Law Review, January 2007 [journal issue]

2007-02-23T07:49:00.000-08:00

Volume 11, No. 1 of the journal Gaming Law Review (2007, January) is now available to subscribers. Original articles include:

Extraditing Peter Dicks
The Post-Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act Online-Gaming Surge?
Virtual Worlds, Real Damages: The Odd Case of American Hero, the Greatest Horse that May Have Lived
The Duty to Preserve Casino Surveillance Video Evidence: Ensuring Compliance with Mississippi Gaming Regulation § 10(e)
State Lotteries, Commercial Casinos, and Public Finance: An Uneasy Relationship Revisited

Research and Measurement Issues [Forthcoming book]

2007-02-21T11:16:00.000-08:00

The book Research and Measurement Issues in Gambling Studies is set to be available from Elsevier in May, 2007. It has been co-edited by the Alberta Gaming Research Institute's three research coordinators -- Dr. Garry Smith (U. of Alberta), Dr. David Hodgins (U. of Calgary), and Dr. Rob Williams (U. of Lethbridge).

This extensive book includes contributions from leading international experts on methodologies and measurement tools relevant to gambling studies.

le jeu pathologique [reports]

2007-02-21T10:52:00.000-08:00

Two new youth gambling-related reports are available from The Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ). They are:

Tired Gamblers [online article]

2007-02-16T11:10:00.000-08:00

An organization called the Canada Safety Council has an article on their web site entitled "Gambling, Fatigue and Drowsy Driving" contributed by Nina Littman-Sharp at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Littman-Sharp provides some highlights of findings from a study carried out on 66 clients of the Problem Gambling Service of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. For those of you driving near casinos late at night (or perhaps leaving from one yourself), be careful behind the wheel of a vehicle!

Packaging Gambling with Sex [newsletter article]

2007-02-15T09:17:00.000-08:00

The newsletter article "Packaging gambling with sex a risky combination for teens" is featured in the Winter, 2006 issue of Youth Gambling International from McGill University's International Centre for Youth Gambling Problema & High-Risk Behaviors.

For anyone wondering, the article discusses provocative advertising by various online gambling sites that use scantily-clad models.

Tunica, Mississippi Revitalization [newsletter article]

2007-02-13T09:17:00.000-08:00

The newsletter article "Tunica Lays Big Bet on the Casino Industry" appears in the January, 2007 issue of Regional Economist - a publication of The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Over the past decade or so, Tunica, Mississippi has transformed from a desperately poor region with poor prospects for economic growth to one that is thriving. Much of the credit for this change is said to have been as a result of the introduction of casino gambling. Based on what economists like Dr. Bill Eadington have written, it would seem that Tunica meets the criteria for places that would be likely to benefit from casino development (i.e., few existing industries, choice of "destination-style" facilities to attract tourists, and residents who are generally willing to accept both the positive and negative effects of casino gambling).