Prevalence and predictors of illegal gambling in Canada

ABSTRACT

Most forms of gambling have been legalized in Canada over the past 50 years. One of the main government justifications for legalization is to eliminate illegal gambling. The purpose of the present study is to shed some light on this issue by establishing the current prevalence of illegal gambling in Canada. A survey of 10,199 Canadian adults was conducted in 2018 as part of a comprehensive national study of gambling. Past year prevalence of illegal gambling was found to be very low: 0.05% for using illegal betting shops or bookies; 0.07% for patronizing illegal casinos or card rooms; 0.09% for illegal animal contests; and 1.59% for illegal online gambling. The most robust individual predictors of participating in any type of illegal gambling were engagement in a larger number of gambling formats and having a higher overall frequency of gambling. Additional individual predictors for specific types were the presence of gambling problems, provincial illegality of that form, male gender, younger age, and race/ethnicity. In conclusion, the low level of illegal gambling provides support for the contention that legal forms may have displaced illegal forms. However, illegal gambling does continue to exist to a limited extent, especially among heavily involved gamblers.

KEYWORDS:

• Gambling, illegal
• Canada
• online gambling
• problem gambling

Acknowledgements

The present study is part of a comprehensive national study of gambling jointly funded by the Canadian Consortium for Gambling Research (CCGR), the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (GREO), and the Alberta Gambling Research Institute. We thank all of these funders as well as Dr. Seamus O’Shea, Alberta Gambling Research Institute (AGRI) Board Chair, and Glenda Wong, AGRI Executive Director, for their foresight in helping to formulate and develop the AGRI National Project and in facilitating its successful implementation. Details can be contained on our website: https://www.ucalgary.ca/research/national-gambling-study/.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data is currently available from Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (Greo) in their data repository.

Ethical approval

University of Lethbridge, Protocol number: 2018–063.

Notes

1. There is significant variation in the types of online gambling that are offered provincially. In 2018 lottery tickets and instant lottery tickets were offered by BC, MB, ON, QC, NB, PEI, NS, NL; bingo and sports betting were offered by BC, MB, QC, NB, PEI, NS, NL; electronic gambling machines and casino table games were offered by BC, MB, ON, QC; and person-to-person poker was offered by BC, MB, QC.

2. Also relevant is the fact that the 1974 survey found the rate of illegal gambling was actually higher in states with greater legal gambling opportunities compared to states with few legal gambling opportunities.

3. Although online panels are demographically representative of the population, they often have some degree of behavioral differences attributable to their ‘opt-in’ method of recruitment (Brüggen et al., 2016; Pennay et al., 2018; Scherpenzeel, 2018). Relevant to the present study is the fact they tend to contain a higher percentage of heavy gamblers and people with gambling problems (Lee et al., 2015; Williams & Volberg, 2012).

4. It was assumed that people who only reported gambling between 1 and 11 times in total in the past 12 months did not engage in any illegal gambling. This assumption is supported by our results which show that having a high frequency of gambling is among the strongest predictors of illegal gambling involvement. That said, there may be a few occasional gamblers who did engage in illegal gambling and our prevalence rates would have been slightly higher if illegal gambling among <1/month gamblers had also been surveyed. This issue will be addressed in our Discussion.

5. A logistic regression was not conducted for ‘any illegal gambling’ as the results are nearly identical to ‘illegal online gambling’ due to a correlation of r = .94 between the two sets of values.

6. Several countries have Internet Service Provider (ISP) legislation that prohibits access to out-of-country gambling websites. However, this does not exist within Canada. The province of Quebec introduced ISP blocking legislation in 2016, but this legislation was rejected by the Quebec Supreme Court in 2018 as well as the Quebec Court of Appeal in 2021 (Shortt & Kerr-Wilson, 2021).

7. Unfortunately, there was no practical way of avoiding the illegal characterization for ‘illegal/underground casinos’ and ‘illegal/underground sports betting shops’, as they need to be distinguished from the legal casinos and sports betting outlets in the response options.

Additional information

Funding

This project was jointly funded by the Canadian Consortium for Gambling Research (CCGR), the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction, Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (GREO), and the Alberta Gambling Research Institute.

Notes on contributors

Sean Mackey-Simpkin

Sean Mackey-Simpkin is a graduate of the Psychology Dept at the University of Lethbridge. The present manuscript was his Honour’s Thesis.

Robert J. Williams

Robert J. Williams is a professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences and an internationally recognized gambling researcher.

Carrie A. Shaw

Carrie A. Shaw is a Senior Researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Gaming at the University of Gibraltar.

Gillian E.H. Russell

Gillian E.H. Russell is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Psychology at University of Lethbridge and currently an Assistant Research Professor at Penn State University.