According to a report in the Edmonton Journal, the province initially expected to take in almost $1.5 billion in lottery and gaming revenue this fiscal year, but that estimate has been dropped by $150 million.
Provincial governments view gambling as a voluntary tax from which many benefits flow. This text book illumines the socio-historical context for legalized gambling in Canada, since the 1970s and in the early 1990s when casinos (resort, rural, urban, and local) prevailed. The essays examine gambling in relation to the cost and benefits, markets and consumers.
Chapter 1) “Introduction: The Shape of Legalized Gambling in Canada” is an adequate summary of the evidence-based decision making which forms the basis for this research.
Part One examines “Morality, Markets, and the State”. Chapter 2 “’Blood Money’: Gambling and the Formation of Civic Morality” analyzes Gambling and the Moral Economy, as well as Gambling and Moral Reform, in the Early Twentieth Century Canada, Gambling Revenue and Funding Regimes”. Some of these ideas were initially presented at a conference on “Gambling Theory”, Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism” at the University of Western Ontario and “Social and Economic Costs and Benefits of Gambling”, a conference at the Alberta Gambling Research Institutive, in Banff, Alberta.
Moral reformers, such as agrarian progressive women and members of the WCTU, used producerist ideas to condemn production of useless or pernicious goods, such as alcohol. (p. 28) Virtue and vice were gendered and arranged in competing versions of masculinity: a masculine domestic respectability and a bachelor masculinity. “For agrarian and social feminists, this latter form of masculinity tended to be associated with militarism as well as vice.” (p. 44, note 11) Feminist moral reformers “saw eugenics as a self-evidently ‘progressive’ answer to mental and moral ‘degeneration.’” (p. 44, note 12)
Chapter 2) “Governing the Gambling and Citizen: The State, Consumption, and Risk” compares pharmaceuticals, as to risk-reward, Gambling Markets, the State, and Risk Management (from a macro-economic perspective), reflexive liberalization, gambling as risky consumption, governing the gambling citizen, and conclusions of this chapter. One view is the idea that gambling should contribute to good causes.
Part Two: “Comparative Gambling Policy Frameworks” begins with Chapter 4) “Canadian Gambling Policies”, Gambling is a “big business in Canada” (p. 69), in addition to Canadian Criminal Code Provisions. The Canadian Operational-Regulatory Models are: 1) The Crown Corporation Model, 2) the Hybrid Model, 3) The Charity Model, and 4) First Nations. The trenchant arguments discuss Policy Objectives Underpinning Gambling’s Legalization; Policy Paradoxes, Regulatory issues, economic benefits, controlling illegal gambling, and conclusions.
Chapter 5) Gambling Policy and Regulation in Australia provides: historical origins, regulation, social costs and problem gambling, regulatory reform and re-regulation, current trends, and conclusions.
Part Three “Governments and Gambling Policy” begins with
Chapter 6) “The Policies of Gambling Legitimation and Expansion in
Chapter 7) “Government as Gambling Regulator and Operator: The Case of Electronic Gaming Machines”, examines the Gambling Expansion Era, The Precautionary Principle, Government Structure and Function, the Social Policy Challenge, and conclusions.
Part Four “Gambling and Social Issues” begins with Chapter 8) “Gambling-Related Crime in a Major Canadian City”, dealing with previous research, gambling-related criminological theory, and the Edmonton Gambling-related Crime Project, conclusions, and implications.
Chapter 9) “Youth Gambling: A Canadian Prospective” studies adolescent gambling behaviour, adolescent problem gambling, correlates and risk factors associated with problem gambling, situational/environmental risk factors, prospective studies, treatment, prevention models, and conclusions.
A companion volume might be on Illegal Gambling and its Consequences. Horse-racing was a class-appropriate sport that also served military and imperial interest in the provision of calvary. (p. 43, note 9) As I write, the Wildrose Party is calling for the elimination of the $25 million annual grant to horse racing.
The contributing editors of this collection of nine essays offer an Introduction on “The Shape of Legalized Gambling in Canada” and a joint paper on “The Policies of Gambling Legitimization and Expansion in Ontario.”
Cosgrave, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Trent University, offers a paper in his own right, “Governing the Gambling Citizen: The State, Consumption, and Risk.” Klassen is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at York University.
This comprehensive reference source provides Appendices on: “Major Gambling Resources”, such as the Alberta Gaming Research Institute and the Canada West Foundation, and Provincial “Problem Gambling Help lines.” Of the latter, it should be noted that this text book is intended “For all Canadians and their families who haven’t been so lucky.” The cover design is aptly based on a photograph of a neon CASINO sign and a row of VLT “slot” machines.
The extensive Bibliography deals with Archival Sources and Published Sources, for additional research.