CONFERENCE SUMMATION

The Big Questions

Dr. Colin S. CampbellDept. of Criminology

Douglas College

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My dilemma:

• Being asked to do a Conference Summary and Closing is not unlike being shot from a cannon and being asked to describe what you saw during the flight.

• Nevertheless, here I am valiantly trying to make sense of the last two days.

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• Of course, the conference commenced with a brilliant, insightful opening commentary by Campbell prophetically hitting the hot issues.

• What follows is my selective filtering of what I thought I heard over the past two days.

• No apologies for my comments.• After all, I am a trained sociologist.

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Session Themes as per the Conference Programme:

1. Gambling Governance2. PG Treatment & Prevention3. Online Gambling Issues4. Canadian First Nations Gaming5. Responsible Gambling6. Research Methodologies7. Social & Economic Consequences8. Government Justifications

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Overarching Themes & Commonalities:

I have chosen to narrow my remarks by focusing on what I felt were five overarching and interrelated issues that appeared in several different sessions:

• 1. Governance & Political considerations• 2. Problem Gambling Issues• 3. Responsible Gambling Issues• 4. Methodological Issues.• 5. Economic Issues

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1. Governance & Political Considerations

• Sessions looked at Canadian and Australian Federalism and their similarities and difference and their impact on gambling regulation

• Other sessions noted isolation of policy makers, the need for greater transparency, and a systemic vulnerability of gambling to scandals. Engaging the Big Questions in

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• When discussions of gambling turn to scandal, I always reminded of Jerome Skolnick’s classic study of regulation in Nevada and Atlantic City, metaphorically titled House of Cards.

• His thesis was that legal gambling existed only because of the broader public’s tolerance and acceptance.

• If scandal or other harms emerged, public support is quickly lost and the industry would collapse like a house of cards.

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• 2. PG Issues – - Sessions focused on facilitating recovery

through a variety of treatment strategies.- Interesting commentaries were offered on

abstinence models Vs moderation models (harm reduction)

- Optimism was expressed that research and treatment were “moving in the right direction” with regard to content, focus of treatment strategies

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• 3. Responsible Gambling Issues

• Considerable discussion through several sessions of micro & macro level strategies.

• Big questions regarding who is responsible – sub-text that merely focusing on individual gamblers and their choices is short-sighted, even ethically flawed, need to examine macro-structural forces.

• My observation, similarly pointed out by Karl Marx, is that individuals do indeed make choices in the course of their lives – but not always under conditions of their own choosing.

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• 4. Methodological Issues

• Once again, the sessions revealed concerns about micro-level approaches to understanding gambling behaviour in labs and in real gaming environments.

• Peripheral, sub-text commentaries about the need to attend to the macro-level determinants.

• Insights into quantitative research methodologies and the commencement of longitudinal studies.

• Refreshing to note the willingness to incorporate qualitative measures – words not used but evident that researchers are finding a richness in the data of the lived experiences of research participants – bringing to mind such ideas as verstehen, phenomenologism.

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• 5. Economic Factors

• Much discussion over the two days of the Costs & Benefits and the role of SEIG in policy formulations.

- Much speculation about the “quest for a gold standard” but, perhaps, in fact, is it instead “a quest for the holy grail” – without knowing if there is such a thing in existence?

- Nevertheless, there is need for clearer answers to important matters involving costs and impacts of gambling.

- Indeed, there is both Political & Public pressure for it.

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- Admittedly, there will always be a subjectivity in the answers.

- It is my contention that in the absence of meaningful, understandable conclusions, pro-gambling forces have had an historical advantage in promoting gambling and its introduction.

- Given the void in information about gambling’s overall impact, the power to control the discourse has gone to pro-gambling interests.

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- Not willing to buy into the simple dichotomy between SCIENCE and ADVOCACY.

- A false dichotomy.Science is not immune to value judgements.Little difference between the production of

scientific knowledge and the uses to which it is put.

e.g. Manhattan Project – scientists splitting the atom had to know the devastating lethal consequences and be morally accountable.

Need to know the uses to which science will be ultimately put.

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• My thanks, on behalf of us all, to our AGRI Hosts: Vickki, Nady, Robert, David and Garry.

• My thanks to all of you for staying the course.

• Safe travels home to all.

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