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7/31/2019 Gambling Research Reveals - Issue 5, Volume 7 - June / July 2008
1/4
gambling
research
reveals
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1
Building research capacityin the feld o gambling in AlbertaAs the Institute nears its 10th year o existence, this issue presents a snapshot o
recent gambling-related research activity at the University o Alberta, University o
Calgary and University o Lethbridge. Each partner university has designated a nodecoordinator to serve as a liaison between its aculty and the Institute. Coordinators
provide a researcher perspective to the Institute Board, media representatives and other
stakeholders on a wide range o gambling-related issues. Another important unction
o these coordinators is to serve as the principal program planner, on a rotational basis,
o the Institutes annual conerence. The position o Institute Librarian and Inorma-
tion Specialist provides another o the important capacity-building unctions in the
promotion and dissemination o credible and authoritative gambling-related research
inormation.
Remembering the origins o the Institute
In 1998, a key recommendation made at the Gaming Summit public consultationon gambling held in Medicine Hat was that Albertas public policy should be devel-
oped within the context o independent, academic research. The provincial governments
innovative response to this particular recommendation was to provide unding support
to Albertas three research-based universities (University o Alberta, University o
Calgary, and the University o Lethbridge) to jointly establish a university-based gam-
bling research institute. In November 1999, an historic unding agreement was signed
that ocially created a research consortium called the Alberta Gaming Research Insti-
tute which was to be administered and governed by the three universities themselves.
From the outset, through unding support to theInstitute universities, the Institute
encouraged researchers to establish and/or to migrate their research programs towards
the various research domains o this emerging eld. Special signicance was also given
to research projects that were interdisciplinary, collaborative, or being undertaken by
researchers new to the eld. At its inception, there were only three researchers at these
universities ully engaged in gambling-related research. Moreover, worldwide there was a
dearth o gambling-specic research activity. Foresight on the part o the original planners
to work on building the range, scope, and volume o high quality, internationally recog-
nized research through ocusing eort on the strengths o each o the partner universi-
ties has indeed paid o. The estimated number o aculty researchers at the Institute
universities has grown exponentially since the establishment o the Institute. Togeth-
er with their collaborative partners rom other jurisdictions and organizations, new
researchers (including graduate and doctoral students and research assistants) now
number well over 100!
VoLUme 7 / IssUe 5
JUne / JULy 2008
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From the InstituteLibrary...
by Rhys Stevens
Canadian Gaming News
The Alberta GamingResearch InstituteLibrary has made availablea reely accessible onlinearchive o 140 issues othe Canadian Gaming News(1994-2007) industrypublication. The archivecan be searched by key-word or browsed by issue
and is accessible romhttp://www.uleth.ca/lib/digitized_Collections/cgn.asp.
Canadian Gaming Newsholds the distinction obeing Canadas frst gam-ing publication and, ormost o its lie, the coun-trys only gaming publica-tion. It is the only source
that has recorded thebirth and growth o thisindustry. Permission todigitize this content wasobtained by the AlbertaGaming Research Instituterom Canadian GamingNews creator Ivan Sack.Content is being hostedby the University oLethbridge Library.
Gambling research at the U o AlbertabyDr. Garry Smith
Gambling-related research at the University o Alberta over the past year has ocused on
social science and public policy topics, however with the hiring o Economics o Gambling
Chair, Dr. Brad Humphreys, the University o Alberta will soon be a leader in economics o
gambling research. AGRI unded studies currently underway include the gambling patterns
and behaviors o certain ethnic groups (Chinese immigrants in Calgary and Alberta First
Nation bands in Hobbema) to determine the role that gambling plays in their societies
and the impact it has on those communities. Other studies include the extent to which
amateur sports groups are reliant on gambling unds and the benets and drawbacks o
this arrangement as well as gambling amongst prison populations (the nature and scope
o prison gambling and how it is dealt with by prison authorities).
Two University o Alberta Faculty members (Dr. Don Schopfocher and Dr. Garry Smith) are
part o the Leisure, Liestyle, Liecycle Surveya ve year longitudinal study o Albertans
gambling habits and characteristics. Year Two data collection has just been completed,so there will soon be scholarly articles emerging rom the mountain o data that is being
amassed.
The University o Alberta hosted the recent 7th annual conerence: Gambling in Society:
A Question of Balance which dealt with such leading edge public policy issues as consum-
er protection, accountability and social responsibility, the need or cost/benet studies
o legal gambling, the status o On-line gambling and the mass medias role in covering
gambling stories. Presenters included both the Ontario and British Columbia Ombudsman
and internationally recognized gambling studies scholars rom Canada, the United States,
New Zealand and Great Britain.
[For urther inormation on the conerencea summary is posted on the Institute
website and the previous issue (April/May 2008, v.7 #4) o Gambling research reveals...is dedicated to coverage o the conerence presentations]
Chair in the Economics o Gaming,Department o Economics, U o AlbertabyDr. Brad Humphreys
In the 2008 Winter term, I taught a graduate course on the economics o gaming or the
rst time. This is the only ull-term graduate level course on the economics o gaming
in the world. Course topics include: economic theories o gambling, an overview o the
economics o betting markets, racetrack betting, sports betting markets, the hot handand gambling, the avorite-long shot bias, lotteries, the economic impact o gaming, and
gaming in a cost-benet context. Seven graduate students were enrolled in the course, and
there has already been one capstone research paper proposal submitted on the economics
o gaming rom students enrolled in this course.
In terms o research and graduate training, as a co-principal investigator (together with
Dr. Rob Williams, U o Lethbridge), we obtained nal unding approval rom the Alberta
Gaming Research Institute and began preliminary work on a major grant project examining
the socioeconomic impact o gaming in Alberta. I am in the process o nishing editorial
work, as guest editor, o a special issue o the International Journal of Sport Finance on
7/31/2019 Gambling Research Reveals - Issue 5, Volume 7 - June / July 2008
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Sports Gambling. It will contain our papers on sports gambling, and is to be published
in August 2008. Finally, in conjunction with the University o Alberta and the Department
o Economics, I have obtained unding or a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Economics o
Gaming. This position will be lled by a new PhD in economics who will work under my
supervision to begin a long-term research program related to the economics o gaming,and will be an invaluable tool or building research capacity in his area. Initial unding
is available or two years, the position has already been advertised, and I anticipate it
will be lled by August 2008.
Gambling research atthe U o LethbridgebyDr. Rob Williams
There are approximately 11 aculty members rom 7 dierent disciplines currently doing
gambling-related research at the University o Lethbridge. In Neuroscience, Dr. Mathew Tata
is using neuroimaging to better understand the neurological basis o pathological gambling.In Psychology, Dr. Martin Lalumiere and Sandeep Mishra are conducting laboratory inves-
tigations studying the relationships between gambling, risk-taking, and decision-making.
In Sociology, Dr. Rob Wood (along with Dr. Robert Williams) is studying Internet gamblers
to better understand the nature and risks involved in this orm o gambling. Dr. Bill Ramp,
also rom Sociology, is using archival research to understand the current conceptualization
o gambling in modern society. In Health Sciences, Dr. Robert Williams is spearheading a
province-wide analysis o the social and economic impacts o gambling. As part o this
team, Dr. Yale Belanger, rom Native American Studies, is specically looking at the impact
o gambling on First Nation communities. Dr. Williams is also involved in a couple o large
scale longitudinal studies o gamblers in Ontario and Alberta that should shed light on
the etiology o problem gambling. Dr. Gary Nixon, a member o the Addiction Counsel-
ling aculty, is looking at the underlying meaning o gambling to pathological gamblers.
Dr. Bonnie Lee, also part o the Addiction Counselling aculty, has a research program that
investigates the ecacy o congruence couple therapy or problem gambling. In Education,
Dr. Noella Piquette-Tomei is doing research into group therapy or women problem gamblers.
Ms. Bev West, in Health Sciences, has recently completed a pilot study investigating the
eectiveness o vouchers or the treatment o problem gambling. Dr. Ruth Grant Kalischuk, in
Nursing, has recently completed a study o the impact o problem gambling on amilies.
Gambling research at the U o CalgarybyDr. David Hodgins
At the Addictive Behaviours Lab in the Department o Psychology at University o Calgary,we are developing brie treatment approaches using a motivational approach. Our brie
treatment development work has three underlying assumptions: First, we know that many
people recover rom substance abuse and other addictions without the help o ormal treat-
ment. For example, it is clear that the most common pathway out o an alcohol problem
or Canadians is sel-recovery. We assume that this is also true or people with gambling
problems, although we know that people will oten not initiate the process o changing
until they have suered signicant problems or a signicant period o time.
Second, we also know that very ew problem gamblers, as ew as three percent, will attend
ormal treatment. Third, we also know rom studies o sel-recovered gamblers, that the
New Institute LiaisonLibrarians
As o August 1, 2008 GrantKayler o the John A. WeirMemorial Law Library will taover rom Maureen Beristainas the Institute library liaisor the University o AlbertaResearchers are encouragedcontact Grant (780-492-353with suggestions or librarygaming collection purchaseand or assistance withreerence-related questions.
We also wish to introduce
and extend a warm welcomeLaura Koltutsky, the new AGliaison librarian at the U oCalgary. Laura commenced hresponsibilities as the SociaWork and Psychology librariin early July. As a componeo this role, she will overseeacquisition and reerenceservices or the gambling-related research collection.Laura can be contacted bye-mail (ljkoltut@ucalgary.cor phone (403-210-6381).
In addition to serving astheU o Lethbridges liaisonlibrarian with the Institute,Rhys Stevens continues toserve as the principal inortion provider or general andresearcher queries. He is alsresponsible or maintainingand developing the Institute
website; writing and editingo the bi-monthly newsletteproducing special topic bib-liographies, and developingand providing access to themulti-aceted gambling-relaresearch collection. You areinvited to contact Rhys bye-mail (rhys.stevens@uleth.or phone (403-329-5176).
7/31/2019 Gambling Research Reveals - Issue 5, Volume 7 - June / July 2008
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ALbeRTA GAmInG ReseARChInsTITUTe boARd o dIReCToRs
Dr. Nady el-Guebaly, Chair,University of Calgary
Dr. Jo-Anne Fiske, Universityof Lethbridge
Dr. Andre Plourde,University of Alberta
Dr. Chris Hosgood,University of Lethbridge
Mrs. Sheila Murphy, PublicMember
Dr. Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot,University of Calgary
Dr. Renee Elio,University of Alberta
exeCUTIVe dIReCToR
Vickii Williams(vickii.williams@ualberta.ca)
node CooRdInAToRs
University of Alberta:Dr. Garry Smith(garry.j.smith@ualberta.ca)
University of Calgary:Dr. David Hodgins(dhodgins@ucalgary.ca)
University of Lethbridge:Dr. Robert Williams(robert.williams@uleth.ca)
InsTITUTe LIbRARIAn
Rhys Stevens(rhys.stevens@uleth.ca)
Your comments and queries are welcomeeither by e-mail: abgaming@ualberta.ca
phone: 780.492.2856
Vickii Williams Writers/EditorsGarry SmithRob WilliamsBrad HumphreysDavid Hodgins
Rhys Stevens
Epigrafx Design/Layout
Media queries 780.492.2856
* The Institute is unded by the Albertagovernment through the Alberta LotteryFund.
ISSN 1499-2639 (Print) AGRI 2008
ISSN 1499-2647 (Online)
change strategies that they use (e.g., avoiding cues to gamble, sel-instruction) are similar
to those used by individuals attending treatment.
The challenge in helping greater numbers o problem gamblers than currently attend
ormal treatment is to oster the early use o these strategies without requiring that
the individual attend a program. Our strategy has been twooldwe have incorporatedpractical inormation about recovery strategies into a brie sel-help workbook and we
have provided individuals interested in using a sel-help approach with brief telephone
supportthat ocuses on their motivation to implement the change strategies.
We have conducted one clinical trial o this brie intervention and are currently conduct-
ing ollow-up assessments or a second nationwide evaluation. In our ongoing trial we
are used newspaper and television ads to recruit problem gamblers who want to recover
on their own. The purpose o the study is to determine more specically what type o
individual with which type o gambling problem is best helped by promoting natural
recovery[DCH1].
The AGRI unded research at the University o Calgary refects the wide diversity o
perspectives on gambling. David Crockord and colleagues are conducting neuroimag-ing studies exploring the brain regions involved in gambling. Daniel Lai, in contrast,
is examining cultural infuences in gambling. Tom Strong is examining the role o
language in gambling in recovery. Over the past ew years, research has been conducted in
almost every acultyMedicine, Social Science, Social Work, Education, Engineering and
Business. This interdisciplinary approach to gambling is also refected in the wide ocus
o the Leisure, Liestyle, Liecycle Surveya ve year longitudinal study o Albertans
gambling habits and characteristics. Dr. David Casey, the Project Coordinator, and
Drs. El-Guebaly and Hodgins rom the University o Calgary along with colleagues rom
the Universities o Alberta and Lethbridge are spearheading this exciting project.
A number o the research grants at the University o Calgary are unding doctoral graduate
student research. Supporting graduate students is one way to develop capacity withinAlberta to address gambling issues rom a evidence-based perspective. At U o Calgary,
Alice Holub is looking at the role o dierent aspects o impulsivity in gambling problems.
Does quick decision making, ailure to anticipate the uture or distractibility play a role
in gambling decisions? Will Shead is also looking at motivations to gambling, but rom an
emotional perspective. How do gamblers who gamble to enhance positive emotions dier
rom those who gambling to relieve negative emotions? Nicole Peden is working to develop
a treatment or amily members o problem gamblers to help them deal eectively with
the gambling issue.
For more inormation on any o the Institute unded research projects and capacity-building
activities at the Institute universities, please visit www.abgaminginstitute.ualberta.ca
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