University of Alberta offers new gambling and gaming course

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U of A political-science professor Fiona Nicoll created the course based on research she conducted as a research co-ordinator with the Alberta Gaming Research Institute, which she hopes will provide critical information to those regularly dealing with gambling and gaming.

Q: Why was this course created?

A: It’s aiming to prepare professionals who are in different fields, as well as graduate students, to understand and respond to this new gambling environment that’s just entered our province. Because the space has grown, more people are potentially engaged. Whether that’s in the addiction and treatment spaces or whether that’s in the regulation spaces. Whether that’s people who work with schoolchildren in K to 12 (particularly the senior years) or even journalists.

Q: How was the course created?

A: It consists of exclusive interviews that bring together, in a really accessible format, a lot of the knowledge that was gathered through the very first national project on gambling and problem gambling conducted in Canada.

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Q: Why introduce the course now?

A: I just thought, ‘Look, we can produce this knowledge, but actually, people need it, and people need it right now, like almost yesterday.’

I saw the need to bring this to as many people as possible because the transformations that are coming are unprecedented in Canada. And in this province, the shift from brick-and-mortar casinos to an iGaming model, where you can gamble at any time, anywhere, on your device with a good internet connection, is a radical shift, partly because it takes regulation out of the hands of the establishments. It downloads that responsibility onto every player to track their consumption.

Q: Why formalize the information into a university course?

A: A lot of academic research is inaccessible for financial reasons. Our project is open access, so people who have university library accounts, for example, can access it. But not everybody understands the language of academic research, and very few people can understand what it means for them and their communities.

Q: What makes iGaming so hard to study?

A: There’s a whole root system under the surface of gambling that operates at the intersection of video gaming, cryptocurrency speculation and microfinance or micro-investment. Often they all look like each other, are based on one another, so it becomes increasingly difficult compared to the old brick-and-mortar days or when you would go to Vegas to see where the lines between gambling and investment and video games are.

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Q: How does gaming and gambling regulation compare to other vices like alcohol, tobacco or cannabis?

A: Where the regulation is coming from in this new iGaming environment is much less from government and more from the online gaming companies themselves, so there’s more of a rubber stamping function of government as a regulator.

It’s different regulating gambling in certain respects to alcohol because you’re not looking at a substance. You’re looking at a person who is now surrounded by a whole lot of offers. It’s really up to them to decide how they regulate that engagement.

Q: How can people take the course?

A: It’s a four-day intensive course. It’s offered in person and online synchronously through the online and continuing education office at the University of Alberta from Nov. 12-15. The cost is $1,000 (including a networking lunch on all four days), and it includes assessment. All graduates receive a credential to apply to their CV/transcripts. 

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