Five Year Gaming Study Announced in Canada

The University of Calgary, Canada is beginning a five-year, 2,000 people study aiming to answer questions such as what role do social factors, genetics, family history, upbringing, financial situation, access, cultural context and personal circumstances have in people’s gambling habits.

U of C Professor David Casey, hoped the results would eventually help government with policy development and minimize gambling effects, saying: “We want to know what influences a group of people to become social gamblers and what influences a small group of people to become problem gamblers.

“If we were to get a new casino in Calgary and we don’t know what the effects are going to be, all we can do is guess and that’s what everybody’s been doing – guessing”

According to project coordinator David Hodgins, the study will follow volunteers, including problem gamblers, leisure gamblers and non-gamblers over the five-year period and will see how gambling trends change with age, with the implementation of new legislation, with the opening and closing of gambling establishments and with life circumstances.