Canadian Gambling Availability

The primary motivation for playing particular games varies dramatically (see Table 4). These data show the primary social interaction games are bingo and card room gambling. The games people play to win money are lotteries, scratch tickets, VLTs, break-open tickets and sport tickets. Casino games, slot machines and horse racing are primarily played for entertainment, and raffles are played as a means of making a donation to charity.

AVAILABILITY OF GAMBLING
To measure gambling accessibility, respondents were asked about availability of different types of games within a 50 km radius of their homes. The results (see Figure 2) indicate that respondents perceive a wide variety of gambling options available to them. It should be stressed that the perception of gambling availability is not a measure of actual availability. For example, VLT coverage is perceived at 63% overall, and yet 40% of BC respondents and 50% of Ontario respondents perceive VLTs within 50 kms despite the fact that these two provinces do not offer legal VLTs. These data may reflect respondentsÕ confusion between VLTs and slot machines, respondents living near provincial borders, and the availability of illegal machines. In those regions with VLTs, 83% of Atlantic respondents, 90% of those on the Prairies and 73% of Quebec respondents live within 50 kms of a VLT.

Overall, nearly every respondent (97%) reported living within 50 km of one of the six forms of gambling mentioned in Figure 2. There is a perception of a high degree of gambling coverage among Canadians.

FIGURE 2: AVAILABILITY OF GAMBLING WITHIN 50 KMS OF HOME
Bingo / 89%
Horse Racing / 54%
Las Vegas Style Casino / 35%
Charitable Casino / 35%
Slot Machines / 56%
Video Lottery Terminals / 63%

TABLE 4: GAMBLING MOTIVATION
GAME PRIME MOTIVATION
Lotteries Thrill of Win (86%)
Scratch tick. Thrill of Win (66%)
Raffles Donate Charity(85%)
Casino Entertainment (56%)
Slot machines Entertainment (49%)
Break-open Thrill of Win (58%)
Bingo Social Reasons (43%)
VLTs Thrill of Win (43%)
Out-of-coun. cas. Entertainment (56%)
Out-of-prov. cas. Entertainment (55%)
Card rooms Social Reasons (39%)
Horse racing Entertainment (58%)
Sport tickets Thrill of Win (62%)