Critical Gambling Studies (Journal)
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Book Review: Cassidy, Rebecca. (2020). Vicious Games: Capitalism and Gambling. Pluto Press. 240 pp. $34.95CAD. ISBN-13: 978-0-7453-4039-5 (paperback)
Full text link$14.5-Billion Per Year and Counting: Canadian Gambling Statistics
Full text linkAsk any gambler how much money they spend on gambling in a typical year and you’ll almost certainly see a quizzical look appear on their face. Individuals are frequently reluctant to disclose such information and those that do typically find it difficult to recall the specifics of their gambling spending. Gamblers who are willing and able to answer might also need some clarification since the question could be referring to either the cumulative amount of dollars gambled or the net dollar figure gambled after accounting for wins and losses[1]. But what if, instead of asking individual gamblers about their spending, one was attempting to determine gambling spending for the entire country of Canada including provinces and territories… are these figures even available? Are provincial and territorial gambling regulators and operators forthcoming with this information? The short answer is that, yes, it is indeed possible to determine a figure for Canada’s net commercial gambling revenue using available data[2]. In this article, I’ll describe my rationale for documenting available Canadian gambling statistics, methods employed, and challenges encountered. A selection of charts is interspersed throughout to illustrate key gambling statistics using examples from the Canadian Gambling Statistics (1970-2020) online database which was created to house these collected statistics and make them publicly accessible.
[1] To learn about these intricacies, see Wood & Williams (2007) ‘How Much Money Do You Spend on Gambling?’ The Comparative Validity of Question Wordings Used to Assess Gambling Expenditure and Auer & Griffiths (2017) Self-Reported Losses Versus Actual Losses in Online Gambling: An Empirical Study.
[2] Calculate at 500 per Canadian adult (18+ years of age) – for details, see Figure 1
Postcolonial Africa and its Lotteries
Full text linkA Critical Gambling Studies blog entry on lotteries in postcolonial Africa
Rationalization as a Dissonance Management Strategy among Electronic Gambling Machine Players
Full text linkErroneous gambling-related beliefs are well researched in light of their association with problem gambling, with some research suggesting these beliefs also serve as justifications for gambling behaviour. The process of justification (i.e., rationalization) can provide insights into how those who gamble resolve dissonance resulting from persistent loss in the gambling context. Using in-depth interviews of 43 participants who identified electronic gambling machines as their preferred game type and were either experiencing gambling problems or were at risk of developing a problem, this study details how dissonance is managed through rationalizations in line with the Dawson (1999) framework. This framework is based on research of religious groups surviving prophetic disconfirmation and is employed here to highlight the contextual and socio-cultural underpinnings of rationalizations along with their supernatural and pseudo-religious qualities. Rationalizations reflect broader socio-cultural beliefs around morality, work, speculation, perseverance, and the supernatural. Implications for treatment are discussed
Tribal Casino Labor Relations and Settler Colonialism
Full text linkSovereignty provides the legal basis for tribal casinos in the United States. However, since the industry’s rapid growth (valued at $34 billion for 2019), courts are now revisiting decades-old precedents in federal Indian law to reinterpret policies in ways that add new constraints to tribal sovereignty. Because tribal casinos often employ large numbers of non-Native Americans, tribal casino labor relations have become a new arena for contests over the boundaries of tribal sovereignty. This article investigates recent tribal casino labor relations court rulings (e.g. Little River, Soaring Eagle, and Pauma) through the lens of settler colonialism in order to understand new revisions to legal precedents. It argues that settler colonialism continues to underlie federal policies and that the growth of tribal casinos reveal that the federal government may intervene to undercut tribal sovereignty
The Relationship Between Unexpected Outcomes and Lottery Gambling Rates in a Large Canadian Metropolitan Area
Full text linkThe purchase of lottery tickets is widespread in Canada, yet little research has directly examined when and why individuals engage in lottery gambling. By leveraging a large urban dataset of lottery sales in Toronto, Canada, and using a simple computational framework popular in psychology, we examined whether city residents gamble more when local outcomes are better than expected; for example, wins by local sports teams or amounts of sunshine based on recent weather history. We found that unexpectedly sunny days predict increased rates of fixed-prize lottery gambling. The number of local sports team wins also predicted increased purchase rates of fixed-prize lottery, but unexpected positive outcomes in sports did not. Our results extend previous findings examining the linkage between sunshine and gambling in metropolitan areas beyond the US, but do not fully replicate the previously observed relationships between unexpected sports outcomes and gambling in US cities. These results suggest that the observed malleability of lottery gambling in response to incidental events in the gambler’s environment may vary considerably across geographies
COVID-19 and the Repercussions of the closing of Decentralised Slot Machines and Gambling Arcades in Finland in 2020 and 2021
Full text linkA CGS Blog entry about the repercussions of the closing of decentralised slot machines and gambling arcades in Finland in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19
Gender Equality in Gambling Student Funding: A Brief Report
Full text linkAcknowledgement of gender disparity in academia has been made in recent years, as have efforts to reduce this inequality. These efforts will be undermined if insufficient numbers of women qualify and are competitive for academic careers. The gender ratio at each graduate degree level has been examined in some studies, with findings suggesting that women’s representation has increased, and in some recent cases, achieved equality. These findings are promising as they could indicate that more women will soon qualify for early-career academic positions. Most of these studies, however, examine a specific—or narrow subset—of academic disciplines. Therefore, it remains unclear if these findings generalize across disciplines. Gambling researchers, and the graduate students they supervise, are a uniquely heterogeneous group representing multiple academic disciplines including health sciences, math, law, psychology, and sociology, among many more. Thus, gambling student researchers are a group who can be examined for gender equality at postgraduate levels, while reducing the impact of discipline specificity evident in previous investigations. The current study examined graduate-level scholarships from one Canadian funding agency (Alberta Gambling Research Institute), awarded from 2009 through 2019, for gender parity independent of academic discipline
A Genealogical Analysis of the Medical Model of Problem Gambling
Full text linkBy applying Foucault’s genealogical approach, this article understands the ascension of the medical model of problem gambling as a happenstance and contingent effect of a new form of social control (biopower). The investigation reveals the cumulative effect of some of the heterogeneous components surrounding the medical model’s creation: discourses; institutions; laws; regulatory decisions; administrative measures; scientific proposition, and philanthropic, moral, and philosophical arguments. In the process, it becomes apparent that the medical model is an effect of a form of control that is embedded in the population itself as a norm and follows the schemata of confessional discourse. This power is disciplining individual bodies and regulating populations towards normality by making problem gamblers critically examine themselves and discursively reveal the results. However, the present subjectivity for problem gamblers (i.e., how they understand themselves and how they are understood by those who would improve them) is an effect of the type of power contained in the confession as well. A certain form of subjectivity is created by admitting ‘I am powerless over gambling.’ While the language problem gamblers use to describe themselves is a mere effect of power, it nevertheless determines how they think of themselves and their relationship with gambling
“This is not about gambling, it’s about our lives”: An Interview with Sheila Wahsquonaikezhik
Full text linkIn this interview, Darrel Manitowabi speaks to Sheila Wahsquonaikezhik, Director of Indige-Spheres to Empowerment, a non-profit organization addressing Indigenous health and wellness. This interview explores Sheila Wahsquonaikezhik’s Indigenous gambling experience including work in an Indigenous casino in Ontario, gambling harm reduction outreach in northwestern Ontario First Nations, and gambling research collaborations. An outcome of this interview is a revelation that the practice of Indigenous gambling is connected to the wider context of colonialism and Indigenous gambling research requires greater inclusion of Indigenous peoples