A St. Albert gambling addict says the possibility of Alberta expanding into online gambling is beyond her comprehension.
Giselle Jubinville played VLTs and slot machines for 14 years, losing roughly $400,000. She eventually stopped herself by researching the addictive nature of the machines, but only after an attempted suicide.
Slot machines and VLTs are designed to make players believe they will eventually win big, she says. Promises of "near misses" make people play until they run out of money and return the next day. She fears online gambling has a similar effect on many players.
"Can you imagine the lonely people, the seniors, the single people, where no one is around?" she says. "Me going to the casino, at least at some time I have to come home to make it look better for my husband."
Every year, the province loses between $120 and $150 million to grey-market gambling sites where Albertans play online. These sites do not contribute to charities or the government coffers, nor do they guarantee any protection to the players, says Bill Robinson, CEO of the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.
The commission is now researching "some very well run programs" in other provinces that could be used to establish online gambling in Alberta. "By developing a product like that for Alberta, we could keep that money to the benefits of Albertans."
Robinson adds that any online gambling site established in Alberta would require online players to register in person before they can play, either at a casino or with the commission. This would put safe codes in place to ensure that "we will not have a bunch of 14-year-olds playing poker online."
Other provinces also provide players with accounts where they can deposit up to $1,000 for online gambling but add limits on how much and how fast they want to spend the money, he says.
Having the commission regulate online gambling will provide Albertans who play online with a place where they can access programs and services "if they get in trouble."
Jubinville worries that children will find a way to gamble online with their parent's credit card or access code, nonetheless. She says the province should not support an addiction just to fill its own coffers.
"If you play the machines as they were intended to be played, even the Pope can get addicted," she says.
Impact on casinos
Casino owners should not worry about competition as their players rarely move on to become online players. "It's a different style of player, generally a younger player," says Robinson.
But Bruce McPherson, owner of Apex Casino in St. Albert, says it's hard to say whether online gambling will affect his business. The commission has not shared any information about this with him.
"You are always worried, I guess," he says. "But if (the commission) has information that it won't affect the bricks and mortar of casinos, they haven't shared that information with me yet. So I really can't comment."
Problem gambling
According to a Canadian Problem Gambling Index Survey from 2002, 82 per cent of adult Albertans have gambled. Problem gambling research estimates that 1.3 per cent of adults are at high risk of becoming problem gamblers, while another 3.9 per cent are at moderate risk and 9.8 per cent are at low risk.
However, a 2011 study out of the University of Lethbridge shows that 40 to 50 per cent of revenue generated from gambling comes from addicts. The study also says the province of Alberta gets 4.2 per cent of its budget from gambling revenue.
According to the province's 2014-2015 budget, the government's share of all gaming revenue was expected to be almost $2 billion.
