Place,gender and the appeal of video lottery terminal gambling: unpacking a focus group study of Montreal youth |
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| Authors: | Dana Helene Wilson Nancy A Ross |
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| Institution: | (1) Canadian Research Institute of Social Policy, University of New Brunswick, Suite 300, Keirstead Hall, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5A3, Canada;(2) Department of Geography, McGill University, 805 Sherbrooke St., West Montreal, QC, H3A 2K6, Canada |
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| Abstract: | Youth gambling has become an important public health issue in Canada and elsewhere owing to the known associations between
gambling and delinquency, family dysfunction and suicide. Modern electronic and virtual gambling activities like video lottery
terminals (VLTs) may have particular appeal to youth who have been raised in social environments that are increasingly dependent
on information and communication technologies. The main objective of the study was to explore why youth gamble and what makes
gambling activities like VLTs popular to youth in the places where youth live, study and play. The research is framed within
a population health perspective that recognizes the role of social and physical environments in influencing health-related
behaviours. Group discussions were conducted with youth to explore the popularity and appeal of gambling and VLTs, and how
gambling fits into the daily routines of youth and the spaces they occupy. Methodologically, this research was conscious of
responding to calls in the literature to analyze focus groups as an interactive group process rather a collection of individual
responses, and to exercise analytic rigour by explicitly making the research team’s positionality and the data collection
process transparent. Group discussions revealed gender differences in the appeal of particular gambling activities with young
males being more likely to discuss poker, dice, sports-betting and online gambling as exciting social activities, while females
described lottery and scratch (instant win) tickets as fun solitary activities. Substantive results point to the need for
interventions to address social aspects of gambling that appeal, in particular, to young males potentially through increased
provision of healthier alternatives to social engagement and greater attention to young people’s use of space. |
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