According to a study by Sylvia Kairouz, a Concordia professor, and Annie-Claude Savard of Université Laval, three times as many residents of Quebec visited an online gambling site in 2020-21 than did so in 2018.
The study’s findings also suggested that more people had problems due to their gambling habits during the pandemic. In this article, we are taking a closer look at these findings and examining who is more likely to gamble and have problems as a result.
Findings of the Concordia Study
The results of the study by Sylvia Kairouz and Annie-Claude Savard were based on a telephone and web survey of more than 4,500 residents of Quebec. The respondents were asked to reveal details of their gambling habits during 2021.
The responses received suggested that the number of people visiting gambling sites increased, as did the number of times people visited the sites and the amount of money and time spent at casino sites.
The number of people reporting issues with their gambling also increased. Ten times as many people reported having issues compared with pre-pandemic figures. Many of these people sought help from the services available to Canadian players.
Who is more likely to experience gambling problems in Canada?
According to an August 2022 study by Michelle Rotermann and Heather Gilmour, most people playing at Ontario licensed online casinos did so without harm and enjoyed the experience. However, some people were adversely affected by the time they spent gambling online.
The 2022 study used information from the 2018 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) Gambling Rapid Response to examine the gambling habits of people aged 15 and older. Of the 18.9 million Canadians aged 15 or older, 64% reported gambling during the previous year. Of these people, 1.6% were at risk of problem gambling.
The breakdown of the percentage of the population of each province in Canada gambling over the relevant period was:
– 74.6% in Newfoundland
– 72.1% in New Brunswick
– 70.9% in Saskatchewan
– 69.1% in Quebec
– 62.2% in Ontario
– 59% in British Columbia
When looking at the Canadian Problem Gambling Index, which looks at problem gambling behavior and its consequences, the study showed that:
– Males are more likely to have moderate to severe issues with gambling.
– People from higher-income households are more likely to gamble than those from low-income households, but those from low-income households are more likely to experience problems with gambling.
– A higher number of gambling activities increases the risk of gambling-related issues.
When you look more closely at the 2018 CCHS-GAM RR you see that 95% of Canadians who gamble report no problems. This lack of issues gives them a rating of 0 on the Canadian Problem Gambling Index (CPGI). In addition, 3.4% of gamblers are recorded as low risk, leading to a score of 1 or 2, and 1.6% of gamblers are recorded as moderate-to-severe risk leading to a score of 3 or higher.
As we stated at the start of this article, the pandemic changed the gambling landscape in Canada somewhat. However, the overall picture is still that the majority of people who gamble do so without issues, but problem gambling is not something that should be ignored.
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