Gambling is a huge business in Canada, producing vast revenue for industry investors. Yet for hundreds of thousands of Canadians, gambling is a costly and consuming addiction. The gambling industry, and the government regulators who oversee it, insist that gambling problems are simply personal problems. However, many public health experts believe that gambling is an addiction. This book considers the many new ways that are available to gamble; outlines the history of gambling in Canada; frames gambling as a public health issue; and, drawing on the most recent data available, evaluates the current discussion around regulation.

• 1. Gambling: Its Pleasures and Costs


• 2. Gambling in Historical Perspective: Canada and the World


• 3. Gambling in the Media


• 4. The Voices of Problem Gamblers


• 5. The Gambling Career


• 6. Gambling and the Workplace


• 7. Sports Wagering


• 8. Internet Gambling


• 9. Youth Gambling


• 10. Sources of Information on Gambling


• 11. The Great Gambling Debate


• 12. Unresolved Questions


• Appendix: Prevention Programs in Canada


• Notes


• References


• Index

Lorne Tepperman is a professor of sociology at University of Toronto. He is the author of Betting Their Lives: The Close Relations of Problem Gamblers (OUP, 2008), as well as many books on sociology in Canada.

Kristy Wanner is originally from Toronto. She recently finished her Ph.D. at University of Missouri and developed a nationally recognized gambling prevention program for university campuses.