2020/2021

This project (AGRI #89) is for the same research conducted in AGRI # 92.

The project entails the matching of individual level lottery winner data (include the amount of the lottery win and the date of the lottery win) with highly confidential financial data on the winner provided by a Canadian Credit Bureau. Once the data is matched we will be able to examine how lottery wins of different amounts impact the financial outcomes of winners.

The project is progressing well. We are still in negotiations with the Canadian Credit Bureau to match our lottery winner data with individual level credit bureau data. Given the confidential nature of the Credit Bureau data, and the fact that we use name and address of lottery winners as part of the matching process, this process requires many assurances of confidentiality. However, it is our belief that when the matched data is made available to us it will result in very influential research.

Our research team includes: Scholnick (U Alberta), Notowidigdo (U Chicago), Kroft (U Toronto), Mikhed (Philadelphia Federal Reserve), Chakrabarti (New York Federal Reserve), Kalkarni (U Virginia).

Giwii-nisidopanmin odaminowin is a project that aims to foster ethical processes of co-
producing knowledge about gambling and gaming among Indigenous youth. Instead of being included as a sub-population within an existing research project developed by non-Indigenous researchers, Indigenous youth were mentored to lead and drive the research agenda themselves. This approach raised a series of interesting questions for Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers. What happens to established theoretical frameworks, methodologies, ethics, data-collection practices and analyses when Indigenous youth determine the research agenda? What roles and value are given to Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge frameworks and different forms of academic expertise? What dimensions of existing research on gambling and videogaming do Indigenous youth find most useful to understand their experiences? For the past three years, Indigenous youth researchers from Northern Ontario have been exploring gaming and gambling together with academic researchers, mentors and facilitators. In addition to running workshops with young gamers and gamblers living in Thunder Bay, they have participated in land and culture-based exchanges between Indigenous youth in Northern Ontario and South Western Australia, as well as arts-based learning activities: from poetry and song-writing to traditional drum-making. This holistic learning process has enabled them to understand and to inform different audiences about the role of gaming in helping them to cope with trauma, to relate to their peers, and to embrace their unique gifts and needs. They have created new knowledge about gaming and suicidality, gaming and classroom pedagogy as well as investigating how games marketed to youth feature addictive gaming mechanics including lootboxes and casinos.

Academic researchers have been refused access to many Indigenous communities in Canada, Australia, NZ and the United States due to extractive methods of knowledge production. Examples include non-Indigenous researchers flying into communities, doing surveys in exchange for gift cards, and never returning to share their knowledge with the people from whom it was gathered. Dissertations and academic careers have been built on research harvested from Indigenous communities and subsequently incorporated as data into existing research on gambling and gaming addiction. This project takes a different approach.

A partnership with Indige-Spheres to Empowerment, an Indigenous organization with expertise in trauma-informed and consent-based methods of research, Giwii-nisidopanmin odaminowin has produced new insights about the role of videogaming and gambling in the everyday lives of Indigenous youth. In addition to videos, papers and posters at international and national conferences and a draft declaration to guide future research collaborations based on principles of respect and reciprocity, impacts of the research include:

• Expanding the horizons of youth researchers beyond the online world by supporting them to embrace opportunities for land-based activities and cultural exchange with
  Indigenous youth in other parts of the world;
   
• Developing new research questions about gaming and gambling in response to the issues that Indigenous youth identify as most important for them;
   
• Changing the language through which academic researchers classify and talk about the behaviors and identities of Indigenous gamers;
   
• Ethically curating diverse forms of knowledge gifted to non-Indigenous researchers.

Youth researchers from IndigeSpheres to Empowerment presented papers at the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education in October, 2022 as well as to the AGRI annual conference in March-April, 2023. They also produced a poster presentation for the AGRI conference.

Australia-Canada Indigenous youth exchange makes connections through shared cultural experiences. ABC News. 18 October, 2022.

A large and stratified sample of n = 2142 ANP COVID panel survey participants were re-assessed on their level of gambling engagement (types engaged in; time spent, money spent, frequency; land-based or online); problem gambling and gambling-related harms; psychosocial functioning including comorbidities, and COVID-19 infection history in Spring of 2021. This assessment, when combined with previous ANP and COVID waves, allowed for longitudinal examination of fluctuations in land-based and online gambling and problem gambling pre- pandemic, during the lockdown, six-months after the national lockdown and then, with the current data collection, one year after the lockdown (May 2021). This data collection period took place when there were varying responses to pandemic third wave (~April 2021).

During the aftermath of the third wave, there were varying pandemic response measures in place depending on province, with some land-based venues being closed completely and others being open but with physical distancing restrictions. As noted, 2142 participants responded to the survey administered in this wave of data collection (May 2021), this represents a 76.77% retention rate from the prior data collection wave. One manuscript of the gambling activities of this sample has been submitted during this fiscal year, and the results of that study have been accepted for dissemination at the International Conference on Behavioral Addictions (June 2022, Nottingham, UK), and a further examination specific to those who migrated to online gambling during the pandemic period has also been undertaken. In addition, data from the May 2021 collection period – the collection period relevant to this funding - is currently in preparation for reporting in another two manuscript with submission anticipated for fall 2022.

The two priority areas of impact informed by this work are:

1. Longitudinal follow-up studies: ‘Longitudinal follow up studies – Basic understanding of the gambling behaviors and habits of various age cohorts was identified as being an integral building block for future research.
    
2. Internet gambling: ‘The pervasiveness of this relatively recent format has accelerated it to the forefront of research demand. Some research has been completed, much is underway, but it will assuredly remain high on the gambling research agenda.’

Longitudinal Studies: The current study has been able to follow a large cohort across multiple time periods assessing not only the impacts of the pandemic on gambling behaviours, but also, examining shorter periods (6-month intervals) of gambling engagement allowing for a more fine-grained examination of the (in)stability of gambling engagement. Moreover, this study has been able to examine comorbidities of problematic gambling, including other behavioural addictions (e.g., video games), allowing for greater understanding of the complexities associated with problem gambling/gambling disorder development. Some of the results from this study are being disseminated at international conference (ICBA, June, 2022) and two manuscripts are currently under preparation.

Internet gambling: The results of this examination allow for a deeper understanding of the uptake and outcomes of online gambling. Prior to the pandemic, online gambling had been associated with greater problem gambling. When the COVID pandemic response measures restricted and/or prevented land-based gambling concerns increased relating to the migration to online gambling. Heightened risk of problem gambling has been shown among migrators in the research, however, the sequential association between risky gambling and online gambling has not been well established. The current longitudinal investigation on the other hand, has allowed for the disentanglement of the direction of the association between internet gambling engagement and problematic gambling. As pre-pandemic baseline data for this examination is available, it has been possible to clearly delineate those migrated to online gambling during the pandemic from those who had gambled online in previous time periods. Thus, this data allows for the examination of the characteristics and risk levels of those who began gambling on an online platform and the trajectory of their gambling involvement once including internet gambling in their engagement repertoire. Preliminary findings from this analysis are to be presented at conference (AGRI, June, 2022) and a manuscript detailing the findings of this study is currently in preparation.