Gambling Limits and Motives Research

Research has shown that setting and sticking to limits is a key strategy for gambling responsibly; however, our Manitobans and Gambling II (2007) study found that 36% of Manitobans did not set any kinds of limits when gambling. In 2008, we held focus groups across the province to explore in greater depth how Manitobans set and stick to limits when gambling; the results of this research were the basis for our public education campaign on limit-setting. We continued to study limit-setting in our Limit-Setting Campaign Evaluation Report (2009) and in Manitobans and Gambling III (2010), which both showed that significantly more Manitobans are setting limits than prior to the campaign. Setting a spending limit continues to be the most common strategy used by Manitobans to gamble responsibly.

Data from the Limit-Setting Campaign Evaluation Report (2009) were used as the basis for a collaborative MGCC research project with Dr. Michael Ellery, an assistant professor in the University of Manitoba's Psychology Department. The article was published in the June 2011 edition of The Journal of Gambling Studies, making the MGCC the first gambling regulatory agency in the world to publish its research in a peer-reviewed, academic journal. Please click on the link below to read the full article.

The research found that an existing questionnaire for measuring motives, the Gambling Motives Questionnaire, may be improved by adding a question related to money. The MGCC is continuing its research in this area, with the hope that a more sophisticated understanding of the motives behind gambling will eventually allow the MGCC to tailor its educational messaging to people who gamble for different reasons. The MGCC is also currently doing research to deepen knowledge about how Manitobans perceive the risks, costs and value of gambling, again with a view to using the results to inform its public education campaigns.

Links:

• Request for proposals: Focus Groups on Risks, Costs and Value of Time Spent Gambling (closed)

• The Effect of Including a Monetary Motive Item on the Gambling Motives Questionnaire in a Sample of Moderate Gamblers (2011)
  
  

• Fact sheet: Evaluation of the Limit-Setting Campaign
  
• Limit-setting Campaign Evaluation Report (2009)