
DREAMING THE NUMBERS: Ethnocultural Gambling in Ontario By: Lorne Tepperman Albert Kwan Charles Jones Agata Falkowski-Ham With the assistance of: David Korn Marion Lynn Janie Wiebe Amy Withers September 2004 Not for Reproduction or Quotation without Permission of the Authors Funded by the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre 91 Table of Contents Preface: The Purpose of this Research ………. 3 Chapter One: Gambling, Gaming, Games, and Play ………. 8 Chapter Two: Gambling in Canada ………. 33 Chapter Three: Three Gambling Cultures ………. 54 Chapter Four: Individual-level Determinants of Gambling ………. 81 Chapter Five: Neighbourhood-level Determinants of Gambling ………. 108 Chapter Six: A Mixed Model of Gambling Behaviour ………. 124 Chapter Seven: Conclusions and Implications ………. 141 References ………. 146 APPENDIX A: Prevalence Questionnaire ………. 157 APPENDIX B: Statistical Tests Conducted on Gambling Diversity ………. 184 APPENDIX C: Statistical Tests for Ethnic Neighbourhood Gambling Patterns ………. 191 92 Preface: The Purpose of this Research This study builds on an earlier study concerned with the effects of ethnocultural group membership and family life on gambling behaviour. It aims to measure more precisely the extent of ethnic variations, and to examine possible explanations. In the end, we hope to shed light on what has been known for a long time but poorly understood: namely, the place of gambling in different ethnic cultures, the extent and reasons for variation in gambling among Ontario’s larger ethnocultural groups, and the policy implications of this information about ethnocultural variation. We call this monograph Dreaming the Numbers because gambling is, ultimately, about dreaming. Gamblers dream of success, wealth, and popular approval; for them, gambling is a shortcut. Like all dreams, gambling dreams are informed by culture. For some cultures, dreams of success through gambling involve demonstrating skill; for others, they are demonstrations of masculinity or intellect or heavenly blessing. As well, in gambling dreams, people take actions to secure their success. They test their fate, through courage and cunning. All dreams involving action, including gambling dreams, are also informed by culture. Cultures have different ways of acting – indeed, different ways of gambling. Among people who gamble a lot, gambling becomes a central part of life – the thing gamblers think and dream about, whether asleep or awake. They dream and scheme about the best lottery numbers, poker hands, or strategies for winning at blackjack, for example. In these senses, their lives are about “dreaming the numbers,” though as we have said, these dreams are shaped by their ethnocultural heritage. How they dream, and how they enact their dream, depends on where they live and who they gamble with. Much more will be said about these cultural variations in the chapters that follow. A study completed in 2002 by Tepperman, Korn, and Lynn “At Home With Gambling,” funded by the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre of Canada, explored the conceptual and measurement issues associated with ethnocultural variation. In that study, we interviewed 60 respondents from each of six ethnocultural groups – Aboriginal, British, Caribbean, Chinese, Latin American, and Russian – using a combination of closed-ended and open-ended survey instruments. Our sample, obtained by advertising, agency referral, interviewer referral, and snowballing – was unrepresentative. Therefore, using these data, we could not speak generally about gambling practices in these six groups. However, the study was useful as an exploratory first step in the direction of the current study. From our earlier study we learned, first, that ethnocultural groups differ in a variety of matters related to gambling. Ethnocultural groups vary in the games they play, where they play them, and with whom they play them (e.g., alone or with others, with strangers or familiars). They hold varying beliefs about luck, risk, winning, losing, gambling and gamblers. Finally, they exhibit a range of gambling practices and gambling-related problems, including other addictive and health-risk behaviours. Second, people teach and learn ethnocultural practices in gambling, as they do in other types of behaviour. Ethnocultural differences result from family and community influences, from early childhood onward. These, in turn, operate within a larger social and cultural context, influenced by such factors as advertising, the mass media, and the proximity of gambling opportunities (e.g., casinos, gambling halls). Third, we learned from the At Home with Gambling study that families and communities both control gambling and stimulate it. Though families and communities are typically the contexts within which people learn the traditions of gambling within their ethnocultural group and, in that sense, come to value gambling, these are typically also the contexts that set limits to risky or costly personal behaviours. As sociologists since Durkheim have argued, social integration is an important source of personal regulation. We need to understand better how family and community life induces responsible 93 gambling behaviour. We also need to understand gambling within the context of stable and unstable, personal and impersonal, social contexts. The theoretically important goals of the current research are to develop a framework for understanding how different ethnocultural groups gamble. In particular, the current analysis enables us to disentangle individual, group and neighbourhood-level influences on gambling behaviour. This is accomplished by combining three data-sets: one exploratory and rich in family and ethnic information, another broad and dense with gambling information, and a third full of representative information about neighbourhood characteristics. Our current study is not primarily concerned with responding to the “problematics” presented by the social and cultural contexts of gambling. It is an analytic and descriptive study. It does not have primarily prescriptive, policy, or therapeutic goals. However, we hope that knowledge derived from this current study will inform health and human services professionals on a range of culturally relevant public health and clinical matters related to gambling. To better understand the factors that affect gambling, we need a clear understanding of the interaction between different levels of influence (individual, family, neighbourhood, community, and society, for example). We need to understand the effects of historical tradition, the dislocating effects of immigration, the marginalizing effects of ethnic segregation, and the psychological effects of unemployment, underemployment, and poverty. When we know more about ethnocultural variations in gambling practice, it will be possible to organize initiatives to support responsible gambling in terms that are culturally appropriate (and understandable) to each particular group. Second, when we know more about the circumstances that lead members of particular groups to drift from responsible gambling to problem (or irresponsible) gambling, seeing the danger signs and taking appropriate steps will be easier. Third, if we know that gambling within the family and community is – for certain groups – more likely to be responsible gambling, we can take steps within those groups to encourage gambling among friends, family, and other community familiars. Culture and Ethnicity Ethnicity, our key variable, is socially constructed and multi-dimensional. That is, the term “ethnicity” encompasses a variety of characteristics including nationality, religion, and language spoken in the home. Some would even include issues like self-identification, patterns of friendship and mating, and residential location in the definition of ethnicity. Culture and ethnicity are relevant to gambling behavior through culturally produced attitudes towards gambling. Culture affects gambling patterns among members of a cultural group by affecting their ideas, traditions, social practices, customs and laws. As members of a cultural group, we inherit and pass on culture through our institutions, practices, technologies, art forms and modes of discourse (Shweder 1991). Thus, culture affects not only the availability of gambling facilities, but people’s attitudes and beliefs about gambling. A positive attitude towards gambling is related to a tendency to take risks (Kassinove 1998; Kassinove et al 1998). Culture determines the attitude and meaning that gambling has for its members, and in this way, culture affects the specific functions of gambling for different cultural groups (Abt et al 1985). Gambling does not automatically lead to problem gambling (Zuckerman 1999; Murray 1993) and there is an uneven distribution of gamblers (i.e., problem versus non-problem) within different communities. Cultural and family factors are likely the intervening variables between healthy and problem gambling (Raylu and Oei, 1998). The addiction literature suggests that several cultural variables both cause and maintain an addiction and subsequently affect the treatment of addictive disorders among cultural groups. Among the elements of culture and social context that have been found to be relevant to the prevalence of addictive disorders, such as gambling drug and alcohol abuse, are generational status, degree of acculturation, specific ethnic group, and place of birth (Zane et Al. 1998). Blaszczynski et al 94 (1998) argue for the importance of a prior history of gambling in their country
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