"Gamblers with a lower portion of friends and family who gamble may have a lower risk of developing gambling problems."
Check out SEIGMA's research findings featured in a Gambling Research Exchange of Ontario (GREO) Research Snapshot here.
SEIGMA News
SEIGMA research feat. in GREO Research Snapshot
SEIGMA Blog: SEIGMA Team Releases Most Comprehensive Report on Impacts of Casinos Ever Undertaken and One-Page “Fact Sheets”
The SEIGMA team has officially released the Social and Economic Impacts of Expanded Gambling in Massachusetts: 2018 report--constituting the most in-depth and comprehensive investigation of the impacts of introducing casino gambling ever undertaken--and 10 Fact Sheets, which are one-page briefings that summarize findings of the social and economic impacts of expanded gambling in the Commonwealth.
Read more here.
SEIGMA Blog: SEIGMA’s Real Estate Report finds Plainridge Park Casino has Minimal Impacts on Real Estate in Plainville and Surrounding Communities
SEIGMA’s Real Estate Impacts of the Plainridge Park Casino on Plainville and Surrounding Communities report examines the initial impacts of the Plainridge Park Casino on the residential, commercial, and industrial real estate markets in Plainville and its surrounding communities. This report follows the Baseline Real Estate Conditions, Host Community Profile: Plainville report that documented real estate trends prior to the opening of Plainridge Park Casino.
SEIGMA Blog: SEIGMA research featured in BMC Public Health—Gambling behavior strongly related to social network's level of gambling
Alissa Mazar, SEIGMA's project manager, summarizes the SEIGMA team’s most recent contribution to the field of public health in the journal BMC Public Health: “The importance of friends and family to recreational gambling, at-risk gambling, and problem gambling.”
Read more here.
Volberg on 22News InFocus discusses SEIGMA's research agenda and efforts to understand problem gambling
On a panel with Mark Vander Linden, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's Director of Research and Responsible Gaming, and Marlene Warner, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling, Volberg discusses the breadth and depth of the research being conducted by the Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts research team and efforts to better understand problem gambling.
Watch the whole discussion here.
Volberg discusses Research & Potential Economic Impacts of MGM Springfield with WBJ
"As for how much Central Massachusetts tourism, dining, and entertainment industries will be affected by the state's new casinos, there isn't a sure way to know [...] 'Believe it or not, given how many casinos we have in the United States and internationally, there's very little known about the impact that casinos have on communities,' said Volberg.
Even the immediate effects on Springfield itself won't be known until [SEIGMA] is able to put an analysis together around a year from now.
Read the entire article here.
Volberg speaks with WAMC Northeast Public Radio on the Social and Economic Impacts of MA's First Casino
Following Chairman Steve Crosby's presentation at a public meeting held in Plainville, MA on the research findings from SEIGMA's Economic & Social Impacts of the Plainridge Park Casino on Plainville and Surrounding Communities on July 26, 2018, Dr. Rachel Volberg–the principal investigator of the SEIGMA study–spoke with WAMC Northeast Public Radio about the many facets of SEIGMA's research, including findings on the social and economic impacts of Plainridge Park Casino to upcoming research centering on the impact of MGM Springfield on the Springfield community.
Listen to Volberg's interview here
For the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's presentation on the Social and Economic Impacts of Plainridge Park Casino, click here
Volberg weighs in on Sports Betting in the Boston Globe
Volberg speaks to the Boston Globe on the legalization and expansion of sports betting:
"Sports betting is 'not the end of the world,' says Rachel Volberg, a UMass research associate professor and former president of the National Council on Problem Gambling. 'But it has to be well-regulated and carefully managed,' and include dedicated funds for research, prevention, and treatment of gambling addiction, she says."
For the full news article, click here.
SEIGMA Blog: Gallup and SEIGMA both find a strong majority agree that gambling is morally acceptable
Based on Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs Social Series, "69 percent of Americans say gambling is morally acceptable [in 2018], a four percentage-point increase from last year and the highest level of acceptance in the 16 years Gallup has asked the question." Compared to the nation, the SEIGMA team, using the Baseline General Population Survey of Massachusetts, found that 82.4 percent of the Massachusetts adult population did not believe gambling was morally wrong and only 17.3 percent considered gambling immoral in 2013-2014. Indeed, compared to the nation, more Massachusetts residents feel that gambling is morally acceptable.
Read more here
State House News covers SEIGMA Lottery Report: Plainridge sales offset Lottery declines
State House News covers SEIGMA's Lottery Report— "The study, part of a multi-year look at industry impacts, was presented Thursday during a commission meeting by Mark Nichols, a professor at the University of Nevada Reno, and Rachel Volberg, the lead researcher behind the comprehensive study known as the Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts (SEIGMA).
“Compared to the year before the casino opened, increased lottery sales in Plainville have offset decreased sales in the surrounding communities leaving lottery sales overall essentially unchanged in the area,” Nichols said in a statement. However, sales in the area have not matched the gains experienced in the rest of the state, the study said."
Click here for the full article