The First Nations’ Contribution to Alberta’s Charitable Gaming Model: Assessing the Impacts (original) (raw)
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UNLV Gaming Research and Review 18, no. 2 (2014): 65-84.
To date a dearth of data has made it difficult to evaluate the success of First Nations casinos in Canada. This paper helps remedy this situation by presenting a three-province overview (Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta) of First Nations gaming models. Two key findings are offered that First Nations seeking gaming market entry, and provincial officials should genuinely consider. First, while each province has adopted a unique approach to First Nations gaming policy they have each opted to direct substantial revenues out of First Nations communities and into their own treasuries. Second, the evidence suggests that larger gaming properties located nearby a significant market provide more benefits versus smaller properties situated in more isolated areas. The subsequent discussion elaborates each provincial model’s revenue generating power, how the revenue in question is being allocated and its corresponding socio-economic impact, whether increased problem gambling and crime have resulted as predicted, while exploring employment trends to determine whether they have developed as anticipated.
"Casinos and Economic Well-Being: Evaluating the Alberta First Nations' Experience."
To date 17 First Nations have introduced casinos as an economic strategy to help mitigate existing socio-economic disparities in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, while the provincial Nova Scotia First Nations operate ‘Video Lottery Terminal (VLT) palaces’ (i.e., no table games). Although the economic benefits of Native casinos in the United States are well documented, there is very little research to determine whether the same effects exist in Canada. The present research seeks to partly fill this void by evaluating the impact of the recent introduction of casinos to Alberta First Nation (i.e., reserve) communities. Findings show that there is significant variability in the economic benefits between communities. Nonetheless, it is clear that, in general, the introduction of casinos in Alberta has broad economic benefits to Alberta First Nations.
There is a surprising paucity of information about urban Aboriginal gambling behaviours and practices considering that the urban Aboriginal community is the fastest growing demographic group in Canada and that indigenous people have some of the highest rates of gambling and problem gambling. Interpreting the focus group findings from First Nations and urban Aboriginal participants in Alberta, this study provides insights about urban Aboriginal and rural First Nations attitudes about gambling and the perceived value of the provincial First Nations gaming industry. Although the First Nations focus groups’ were aware of gambling’s associated positive and negative outcomes, they were generally supportive of their communities’ decision to pursue casinos. The urban Aboriginal focus group however identified little positive about the casinos, even if its participants supported the First Nations capacity to pursue casino development. These tensions demand policy makers’ attention, for the First Nations Gaming Policy has the potential to amplify what is a growing ideological divide evident between First Nation and urban Aboriginal peoples.
This article argues that socio-economic analyses of reserve casino projects, specifically those studies structured to offer an overall assessment of success or failure, need to embrace mixed methods approaches. In particular, eliciting community-based perspectives through qualitative data gathering techniques is essential to provide a level of context required to better understand the casinos’ overall influence. To date researchers tend to rely on First Nations leaders projections and assessments as the baseline data for their analysis. This article compares the impacts of two casinos in northern Alberta communities, and shows how focus groups provided a grassroots perspective of the casinos’ positive and negative impacts that were not captured by the quantitative data.
International Journal of Canadian Studies, 2010
At the end of 2008, there were 17 First Nations casinos operating in Canada. Recent statistics confirm that all are money-making enterprises, and that individual First Nations are using the money to improve social programming and augment infrastructure. What has been overlooked to date is local health: specifically, limited funding was set aside in all Province-First Nations gaming agreements to implement problem-gambling treatment programs for on-reserve residents negatively influenced by the introduction of a casino. This is surprising considering that several studies in Canada and the United States have shown Aboriginal people are more likely to become problem gamblers. This paper argues that by situating a casino in a reserve community, the host community establishes an imperative to treat those negatively affected by ease of access to casino gambling games. To do so is an aspect of self-determination, and a responsibility First Nations assume when selecting casinos as mechanisms of economic development.
The Province of Alberta in 2001 implemented the First Nations Gaming Policy (FNGP) to improve First Nations development potential by permitting the construction of reserve casinos. This paper argues that during the policy development stages provincial and First Nations leaders failed to consider the geographic placement of reserve communities, both in terms of where casinos would be placed, and how gaming revenues would ultimately be distributed. In turn, a policy intended to assist with First Nations economic rejuvenation in Alberta has benefitted a small proportion of First Nations, while exacerbating regional economic difficulties the policy was in part calculated to ameliorate. The authors recommend revisiting the FNGP to establish a more equitable revenue distribution formula resulting in greater distribution of gaming revenues to a larger number of First Nations.
"Neoliberalism as Colonial Embrace: Alberta’s Regulation of First Nations Gaming, 1993-2010.”
Buoyed by the success of two large-scale bingos in 1993 Alberta’s First Nations initiated plans to construct reserve casinos to mitigate economic hardships. That year Alberta commenced with neoliberal reforms to slash the provincial budget. On the surface the First Nations’ request seemed rational: they sought an opportunity to become economically self-reliant while contributing to the provincial gaming industry during a period of bureaucratic devolution. This paper examines how ingrained attitudes equating First Nations as wards to the provincial government’s guardianship informed the creation of a First Nations Gaming Policy, leading Alberta to acquire regulatory authority over all reserve casinos. It also innovatively demonstrates how this neocolonial approach was used in concert with a neoliberal model to create a bureaucracy responsible for oversight of reserve gaming, the costs of which were borne of reserve casino revenues thereby resulting in no additional taxation of non-Native Albertans.