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Introduction
Dr. Sylvia Kairouz is currently engaged in funded research examining comprehensive multilevel models of determinants of gambling behaviours. She has piloted six large population surveys in Quebec over the last five years and collaborates with scholars and key institutions in Quebec, Canada and internationally. She holds an FQRSC research chair on the study of gambling and is the head of the Lifestyle and Addiction Research Lab at Concordia University.
Skills and Expertise
Additional affiliations
July 2006 - present
July 2006 - October 2021
January 2008 - present
Publications
Publications (121)
The gambling landscape was profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to an increase in online gambling participation. This growth raises concerns about the potential harms associated with online gambling. This qualitative study aims to understand the lived experiences of gamblers whose participation in online gambling increased due to t...
Online gambling has demonstrated a significant and growing impact on overall gambling involvement. To examine online gambling practices and associated problems, we conducted surveys with national samples of Internet users in several European countries. The objective of this paper is to provide a portrait of online gambling practices and problems in...
Introduction:
Rapid changes in the Australian gambling environment have amplified the risks for gamblers and pose significant threats to public health. Technological advances, saturation of marketing, and the embedding of gambling in sport have all contributed to significant changes in the gambling risk environment. Older adults have witnessed the...
Gambling scholars may be unfamiliar with the research methods used by their colleagues in game studies. Yet, as gambling becomes gamified, and gaming becomes gamblified, the intersection between our two fields continues to grow. The GameBling game jam, which took place in 2022 at Concordia University, proposed to explore this growing intersection b...
Background and aims:
Participating in online gambling is associated with an increased risk for experiencing gambling-related harms, driving calls for more effective, personalized harm prevention initiatives. Such initiatives depend on the development of models capable of detecting at-risk online gamblers. We aimed to determine whether machine lear...
Gambling usually involves wagering real money but can also be conducted with virtual money, chips, or coins. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as simulated gambling, social gambling, or play money gambling. This study explores correlations and transitions between simulated gambling and real money gambling with an emphasis on gambling- relate...
Gambling activities are rapidly migrating online. Algorithms that effectively detect at-risk users could improve the prevention of online gambling-related harms. We sought to identify machine learning algorithms capable of detecting self-reported gambling problems using demographic and behavioral data. Online gamblers were recruited from all licens...
There are a range of stereotypes and assumptions associated with women’s gambling behaviours. While researchers have demonstrated that the practices associated with women’s gambling are changing and becoming increasingly normalized, there is a limited understanding of how younger women ascribe meanings to these practices. This study explored the ga...
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought drastic changes to the lives of a substantial portion of the world’s population. Many stakeholders have expressed concern about the impact of the pandemic on gambling practices, which have historically increased during times of crisis. The purpose of this study was to provide a snapshot of the impact of the pandemi...
Consequences experienced by the partners of individuals with a gambling disorder are well documented. However, little is known about the deleterious effects experienced by other people than partners of gamblers. A better understanding of these consequences could help improve clinical practices. The goal of this paper is to compare the consequences...
Background:
Younger women's engagement with gambling has changed over recent decades due to a range of socio-cultural, environmental and commercial factors. However, younger women's distinct lived experiences with gambling have rarely been considered. The following critical qualitative inquiry explored factors that influenced younger women's engag...
This scoping review aims to map the existing conceptualization of gender in peer-reviewed gambling scholarship to locate areas of future inquiry for a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between gender and gambling. It follows Arksey and O'Malley's (2005) framework for scoping reviews, updated by Levac et al. (2010) and Daudt et al. (20...
Background
The normalisation of gambling for young people has received considerable recent attention in the public health literature, particularly given the proliferation of gambling marketing aligned with sport. A range of studies and reports into the health and wellbeing of young people have recommended that they should be consulted and engaged i...
The responsible gambling approach is the subject of significant debate in the scientific community due to its tendency to individualize responsibility, focusing heavily on the gambler’s responsibility for gambling-related harm. Despite the gambler, and their responsibility, being the focus of responsible gambling discourse, their voices and perspec...
Le trouble lié au jeu d’argent (TJA) a d’importantes répercussions dans la vie de l’individu qui en souffre, mais aussi dans celle des membres de son entourage, dont spécifiquement au niveau conjugal. En raison de leur nature complexe, les impacts vécus par les conjoints ont été le plus souvent explorés à partir d’observations cliniques tenant comp...
This article examines the effect of gambling location on the frequency, expenditure, and time spent on cash game poker in relation to individual characteristics of gamblers. Data were drawn from a 2012 Québec epidemiological gambling survey. The quantitative analysis used multilevel methods to model the dual-level hierarchical design of gambling lo...
This article is a commentary by Sylvia Kairouz, Ph.D., written for the Critical Indigenous Gambling Studies special issue of Critical Gambling Studies.
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has major collateral impacts on mental health. Gambling is among the major public health issues that seems to have been transformed by the pandemic. In the province of Quebec in Canada, gambling is an important leisure activity. About two out of three adults are in Quebec gamble. The objective of this study is to...
Aim
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is supposed to play an important part in public health. Critics argue that opposing financial interests can prevent companies from implementing effective CSR programs. We shed light on this discussion by analyzing CSR programs of gambling operators.
Subjects and methods
Two data sets are used: (1) seven re...
This article examines Canada’s first internet gambling website blocking scheme, which was enacted in Quebec as part of the implementation of the province’s 2015 budget. Using qualitative research methods, the article illustrates the complexities of regulating online gambling. Influenced by critical sociological and anthropological studies of gambli...
Objectives
With the feminization of gambling, the proportions of women experiencing gambling problems and seeking help have increased. Understanding help-seeking in women is essential to better meeting their needs, however, little is known about the service use of women who have gambling problems in the general population. This study aims to invest...
Background
The impact of COVID-19 on mental health is tremendous. Since the beginning of the pandemic, several actors have raised concerns about the impact of the pandemic on gambling. Many actors fear a switch to online gambling in the context of the closure of many land-based gambling activities due to the restrictions imposed by public health au...
Poker players are at high risk of experiencing gambling problems. Despite the feminization of gambling, little is known about the problems associated with poker playing among women. This cross-sectional study aims to examine relationships between gambling problems and factors generally associated with gambling problems (gambling behaviours, substan...
Gambling markets have drastically expanded over the past 35 years. Pacing this expansion has been the articulation of a governance framework that largely places responsibility for regulating gambling-related harms upon individuals. This framework, often defined with reference to the concept of responsible gambling (RG), has faced significant critic...
Despite the popularity in poker-related activities in recent years, few studies have focused on the evolution of gambling habits of poker players over a long period of time. The aim of this study is to examine factors influencing trajectories of poker players. The results are based on data collected at a four-time measurement of a prospective cohor...
Online poker is considered more at-risk than land-based poker in terms of intense gambling behaviors and gambling problems. The development of many online gambling sites has raised public health concerns about the potential increase in online poker players. Longitudinal studies are useful to better understand the evolution of gambling behaviors; ho...
Objective
Despite the risks associated with poker and its unique characteristics when compared with other forms of gambling, little knowledge exists of poker players’ perceptions of prevention strategies. The aim of this study was to explore poker players’ perceptions and understandings of existing problem gambling prevention strategies.
Methods
T...
This chapter summarises the report of the Working Group on Online Gambling, Québec, Canada. The method chosen to analyse the social impact of the development of online games and the measures to counter illegal gambling was 1) an extensive monitoring system to provide continuous and systematic data collection and 2) national and international consul...
Factsheet no 9 from the Research Chair on Gambling Studies
Gambling research has highlighted substantial activity-specific differences in gambling behaviours, but measures of problem gambling remain non-specific. This paper aims to examine the consistency of general versus activity-specific Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) scores among a sample of moderate-risk and problem gamblers in Québec, Canada....
While most gamblers spend moderate amounts of money, a few spend much more. This leads to spending being concentrated among a small number of players. Building on a body of literature that shows disproportionate spending by problem gamblers, we hypothesize that problem gambling causes such concentration. We investigate this hypothesis empirically b...
Lotteries are one of the most prevalent forms of gambling and generate substantial state revenues. They are also argued to be one of the least harmful forms of gambling. This paper is one of the first to examine exclusive lottery gamblers and compares their gambling patterns and problems as well other associated risky behaviours to those who are no...
Objectives: Within the field of gambling research, an emerging body of literature has begun to examine the associations between neighborhood context and gambling outcomes (i.e., gambling participation and problems). Previous research has been heavily focused on objective measures of neighborhood influence with few studies examining subjective (i.e....
Recent expansions in regulated offerings to include online forms of gambling have been undertaken amid animated debate on the potential impacts of this legalization. The objective of the present study is to examine changes in online gambling patterns before and after the opening of Espacejeux: the state-operated gambling website in Québec, Canada....
Recent expansions in regulated offerings to include online forms of gambling have been undertaken amid animated debate on the potential impacts of this legalization. The objective of the present study is to examine changes in online gambling patterns before and after the opening of Espacejeux: the state-operated gambling website in Québec, Canada....
The rational management of expenditures has received much attention in the evaluation of problem gambling, overlooking however the contribution of the sociocultural context in which gambling occurs. This paper examines how moderate-risk and problem gamblers develop specific semantic frames within three settings—private, casino, and online—to struct...
The rational management of expenditures has received much attention in the evaluation of problem gambling, overlooking however the contribution of the sociocultural context in which gambling occurs. This paper examines how moderate-risk and problem gamblers develop specific semantic frames within three settings—private, casino, and online—to struct...
Objectives: The first goal of this study was to empirically identify, among university students, groups with varying levels of risk based on indicators of gambling and substance use. The second goal was to compare the identified groups on various demographic characteristics.
Methods: The study comprised of 2139 full-time undergraduate students, rep...
Digital technology advances have supported an expansion of gambling activities, which is notable via the advent of simulated gambling games. Simulated gambling reproduces ‘real’ gambling activities, which enables the users to gamble without investing money. According to research evidence, a certain number of adolescents are playing with these games...
Factsheet no 6 from the Research Chair on Gambling Studies
Poster presented at the Alberta Gambling Research Institute (AGRI) meeting, Banff (Canada).
Poster presented at the Alberta Gambling Research Institute (AGRI) meeting, Banff (Canada).
Poster presented at the Alberta Gambling Research Institute (AGRI) meeting, Banff (Canada).
Poster presented at the Discovery meeting of the Responsible Gambling Council (RGC), Toronto (Canada).
Few empirical studies have examined the relationships between differing regulatory approaches and patterns of gambling behaviors. This article reports on a correlational cross-cultural comparison of differences in the regulatory approaches and gambling behavior among general adult populations in France and Québec, Canada. We drew data from two larg...
Several studies have shown that gambling problems are cyclical but few have empirically investigated factors that are associated with change. The purpose of this article is to prospectively examine associations between life events and problem gambling severity in a cohort of gamblers. Occurrence of life events and gambling problem severity were ass...
The gambling market is regulated because it involves costs to society. The standard approach to countering these is to tax gambling products. However, gambling taxes deter more recreational than pathological gamblers and are regressive, meaning that they increase social inequalities. Concurrently, health prevention measures reduce the social costs...
Ce billet vise à ouvrir une réflexion sur les nouvelles formes de jeux en ligne, leur consommation, leur potentiel addictif et les enjeux qu’ils soulèvent pour l’intervention.
Background
This study aimed to 1) identify the characteristics of individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs) who make high use of services provided by general practitioners (GP) and psychiatrists while receiving services concurrently from an addiction rehabilitation center (ARC), and 2) to compare high service users to moderate and low service...
Moderate-risk and problem gamblers represent 1.4% and 0.4% of the Québec population, respectively. Research on gamblers’ trajectories has been hampered by methodological shortcomings leading to heterogeneous results. The present research was conducted in the Province of Québec with a representative sample of adult gamblers and aims to explore how g...
This factsheet was prepared by the Research Chair on Gambling Studies in collaboration with the Centre de réadaptation en dépendance de Montreal and the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal
A gender divide in gambling is commonly observed among college populations. This study examines whether settings where students gamble on poker mediate the relationship between gender and poker gambling behaviours. Undergraduate poker players, 126 females and 242 males, were randomly sampled from three universities in Montreal, Canada. Three outcom...
Factsheet no 3 from the Research Chair on Gambling Studies
Background: Research has yet to disentangle and estimate the relative contributions of both contextual and individual characteristics to explain time and money expenditures on gambling. Methods: Data are drawn from the University Student Gambling Habit Survey (ENHJEU), a campus-stratified survey targeting full-time undergraduates enrolled at three...
Background and aims:
In an effort to provide further empirical evidence of meaningful differences, this study explores, in a student population, the distinctions in gambling behavioral patterns and specific associated problems of two levels of gambling severity by comparing problem gamblers (PG) and moderate-risk gamblers (MR) as defined by the sc...
In 2010 France enacted a law to regulate supply and consumption of online gambling. Its primary aim was to protect citizens from gambling-related harm. This study aims to assess differences in gambling patterns and related harm between online gamblers who use licensed versus unlicensed sites. Participants (N = 3860) completed a self-administered on...
Cet article vise d’abord à dresser un portrait global de la
prévalence et les déterminants de la consommation des
substances psychoactives (SPA) et du jeu de hasard et d’argent
(JHA) de façon globale, avec une concentration sur le Québec.
Puis, il présente l’utilisation des services pour ces deux fléaux et
les facteurs associés à l’utilisation des...
To describe gambling practices and trends in Quebec between 2009 and 2012 given that, in Canada, public funding allocation to address the risks associated with gambling practices should be based on valid prevalence data and knowledge of patterns and trends in vulnerable populations.
The study data were taken from the 2009 and 2012 cross-sectional w...
Factsheet no 2 from the Research Chair on Gambling Studies
Introduction:
This Canadian study examines the prevalence of smoking restrictions in homes before and after the implementation of a public smoking ban, and their relation to tobacco use and cessation among a cohort of smokers.
Methods:
Data were from a longitudinal cohort study of 1,058 smokers in the province of Québec, Canada. Baseline data we...
This is a five-year project funded by the concerted actions program « Les jeux de hasard et d’argent au Québec : Portrait des joueurs adultes et prévalence des problèmes associés » of the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et Culture (FRQ-SC). The study main objective was to generate prevalence data on gambling behaviours and associated problem...
This study aims to describe online poker gambling patterns and associated problems in a representative sample of university students. The study sample consisted of 366 past-year online and offline poker gamblers and was drawn from a larger survey sample of full-time undergraduate students (N52,139) randomly selected across four university campuses...
Contexte : Le mouvement des Alcooliques Anonymes (AA) demeure la source d’aide la plus utilisée au monde en alcoolisme. Il propose un modèle de rémission basé sur les principes des 12 étapes et soutenu par une communauté d’entraide qui, au-delà de l’abstinence, vise la reconstruction de sa vie sans alcool et l’atteinte d’un bien-être. Peu d’études...
Avant l’enquete nationale sur les jeux de hasard et d’argent (JHA) de 2010, la France ne disposait pas de mesure de la prevalence du jeu et du jeu problematique dans la population. Objectif : Cette etude presente un premier portrait des JHA en France, decrivant le profil sociodemographique des joueurs courants, les pratiques de jeu des joueurs dits...
To characterize and compare sociodemographic profiles, game-play patterns, and level of addictive behaviors among adults who gamble online and those who do not, and to examine if, at the population level, online gambling is associated with more risky behaviors than offline gambling.
Respondents were 8,456 offline gamblers and 111 online gamblers wh...
This paper examines (i) gender and country differences in negative consequences related to drinking; (ii) relative rates of different consequences; and (iii) country-level predictors of consequences.
Multi-level analyses used survey data from the Gender, Alcohol, and Culture: An International Study (GENACIS) collaboration.
Measures included 17 nega...