58% Indicate Increased Tax Revenues Do Not Offset the Problems Caused by Gambling

Canadians were read position statements about gaming and gambling and were asked to indicate whether they agreed or disagreed with the opinion being advanced.

The benefits from increased tax revenues do not more than offset any negative influences from gambling

Six in ten (58%) Canadians disagree with the statement that "the benefits from increased tax revenues more than offset any negative influences from gambling". An additional 37% agree with the statement. These results are quite consistent across regional and socio-demographic groups.

Those most likely to indicate that the negative influences of gambling are not offset by the benefits from increased tax revenues are from Saskatchewan/Manitoba (76%) and Atlantic Canada (62%). Those most likely to agree with the statement are from Quebec (46%).

One's propensity to believe that the negative influences of gambling outweigh the benefits from increased tax revenues increases with age, level of income and level of education. Specifically, while half (50%) of Canadians between 18 and 34 disagree with the statement that, "the benefits from increased tax revenues more than offset any negative influences from gambling", this increases to 60% among those between 35 and 54 and a full two-thirds (66%) among those over 55. Also, 54% of Canadians with incomes less than $25,000, 57% of Canadians with incomes between $25,000 and $55,000 and 64% of Canadians with incomes over $55,000 disagree with the statement. Similarly, 46% of those who have not completed high school disagree with the statement while 67% of those with a university degree disagree with the assertion that the benefits from increased tax revenues more than offset any negative influences from gambling.

Men and women hold similar beliefs about this issue. However, men are slightly more inclined to agree that the increased tax revenues more than offsets any negative influences from gambling compared to women (39% versus 35%).

Governments are addicted to gambling revenues

An overwhelming majority (86%) of Canadians believes "that governments have become addicted to the money generated from gambling as much as people have become addicted to gambling". Although there are different regional pronunciations, this belief is shared by a strong majority of Canadians across all regional and socio-demographic groupings.

This belief is strongest in Saskatchewan/Manitoba (91%), among Canadians over 55 years (89%) and those with incomes under $25,000 (89%). Although still the majority perspective, it is least acute in Alberta (80%), among those between 18 and 34 years (82%) and those with incomes over $55,000 (83%).

Over one third (35%) know of a problem gambler -- Casinos and VLTs are the culprits

Over one third (35%) of Canadians know of a problem gambler. Almost two thirds (65%) do not know of a problem gambler.

Representing the two extremes on this question, over half (52%) of Atlantic Canadians know of a problem gambler compared less than one-quarter (24%) of British Columbians who know of one.

Among those who know of someone who is a problem gambler, just over one-third nationally (36%) indicate that the person is engaged in casino gambling and an additional one-third nationally (35%) indicate that the person is involved in playing Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs).

The regional data, however, paints a more lop-sided result in those provinces where VLTs are prevalent. Specifically, almost two thirds (64%) of Albertans, over three-quarters (78%) of Atlantic Canadians and more than eight in ten (84%) of those who reside in Saskatchewan/Manitoba indicate that the problem gambler that they know of is involved in VLT gambling.

Ontarians (47%) and Quebecers (44%) indicate that the person they know of who is a problem gambler is addicted to casino gambling.

Casinos and VLTs ranked 'most harmful' to community

Canadians were asked to rank various forms of gambling on a scale of 1-10. Individual scores of 7, 8 or 9 were combined to determine which forms of gambling and gaming Canadians consider most harmful. Based on these scores, these are the rankings in descending order of harm (i.e., VLTs are the most harmful).

• Video Lottery Terminals (42%)
• Casinos (41%)
• Off track betting (23%)
• Horse-racing (21%)
• Bingo (20%)
• Betting on sports (19%)
• Government lotteries (15%)
• Charity lotteries (10%)

VLTs and casinos are classified as the most harmful and second most harmful forms of gambling to one's community across all Canada except for in British Columbia where casinos outrank VLTs.

Similarly, VLTs outrank casinos as the most harmful form of gambling across most age, sex, education and income categories. The exceptions are among adults between 18 and 34, individuals with household incomes below $25,000 and those without a high school education -- these groups of Canadians consider casinos more harmful than VLTs.

This CTV/Angus Reid Poll was conducted by telephone between February 9th and 12th 1998 among a representative cross-section of 1,000 Ontario adults.

These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 1996 Census data.

With a Canada-wide sample of 1,000, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results are within ±3.2 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

W. John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Angus Reid Group
(416) 324-2900