Download - Casinos and Your Health
Wellesley Institute: Casinos and Your Health
• Professor Jim Cosgrave
• Department of Sociology
• Trent University (Oshawa)
• Co-editor/contributor:
• Casino State: Legalized Gambling in Canada
State-owned gambling
• Alibi model• Organized crime• Not private profit• Public benefit
• Canadian approach• >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
• Risk model• Gambling as
legitimate business• Entertainment framing• Revenue
maximization• Risk management• From gambling to
“gaming”
Issues and tensions
• State as regulator and promoter/beneficiary• Finance vs. public health• 4.8% of gamblers generate 36% of revenue: $4B• (Williams and Wood 2004, 2007) • Canada Safety Council: 360 gambling-related
suicides/year• Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs): slot
machines and VLTs: highest rates of addiction (casino’s bread and butter)
• Least risk gambling>>>greatest risk
Issues and tensions
• Casinos 24/7 vs. restrictions on alcohol
• “voluntary” taxation (stealth)
• “Responsible gambling”
• State/government>>>market/corporation
• No more alibis (e.g. online gambling)
I’m Losing Money. So Why Do I Feel So Good?By RANDALL STROSS
Published: January 12, 2013
• http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/business/how-slot-machines-raise-our-hopes-even-when-were-losing.html?_r=0