SEIGMA News

SEIGMA Blog: SEIGMA releases findings on the first major cohort study of gambling in the US: The Massachusetts Gambling Impact Cohort (MAGIC) study

Alissa Mazar, SEIGMA’s project manager, explains the recently released “Analysis of MAGIC Wave 2: Incidence and Transitions,” which provides insights into changes in gambling participation and problem gambling incidence prior to the opening of casinos in the Commonwealth.

The Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts (SEIGMA) research team has released a report on the first major adult cohort study of gambling conducted in the United States. By surveying the same individuals over time, cohort studies provide information on how gambling and problem gambling develops, progresses, and remits. This has significant value as it can highlight risk and protective factors important in developing effective prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery support services.

SEIGMA Blog: What are the economic impacts of casinos in MA? The Patron and License Plate Survey Report offers insight

Alissa Mazar, SEIGMA's project manager, details SEIGMA’s recently released “Patron and License Plate Survey Report: Plainridge Park Casino 2016,” which is a key component to understanding the social and economic impacts of casinos in the Commonwealth.

In 2016, the Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts (SEIGMA) research team conducted a patron survey at Massachusetts’ first casino, Plainridge Park Casino (PPC). Laurie Salame, senior lecturer at UMass Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management and an expert advisor to the study, led the survey and is the report’s lead author. Concerning patron surveys, this effort is first-of-its-kind due to its rigorous method to attain a sample of PPC patronage as representative as possible while using sophisticated weighting techniques to account for response bias.

SEIGMA Blog: Economic Impact Report of Plainridge Park Casino's First Year of Operation

Thomas Peake, Research Analyst at the UMass Donahue Institute (UMDI), and a researcher on the economic and fiscal analysis team, has spent the last three years developing models to assess the economic impacts of expanded gaming in Massachusetts. In this post, Peake details results from his analysis of the impacts from Plainridge Park Casino’s (PPC) first year of operation.

Read the blog here

Volberg Speaks to the Portland Press Herald re: the Economic Impacts of Casinos

Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts (SEIGMA) University of Massachusetts Amherst SPHHS

Rachel Volberg, SEIGMA's Principal Investigator, speaks to the Portland Press Herald on research versus projections concerning the economic impacts of casinos.

“In my experience, casino development projects are often associated with rosy projections about the jobs and tax revenue that will be created,” said Rachel Volberg, principal investigator on the Massachusetts Gaming Commission’s Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts study. “However, efforts to actually monitor those impacts and assess their magnitude are rarely undertaken.”

SEIGMA Blog: Gambling intensity and formats matter most, Volberg and co-authors find

Alissa Mazar, SEIGMA's project manager, summarizes Volberg and co-authors' most recent contribution to the gambling literature, “Forms of gambling, gambling involvement, and problem gambling: Evidence from a Swedish population survey.”

Dr. Rachel Volberg, the Principal Investigator of the SEIGMA study, has recently published “Forms of gambling, gambling involvement, and problem gambling: Evidence from a Swedish population survey” in International Gambling Studies. Working in collaboration with colleagues from Sweden, Volberg’s article makes a distinct contribution to the gambling literature by teasing out how participating in specific forms of gambling, the number of gambling formats, and intensity (i.e., time and money spent) relate to problem gambling.

Read here

SEIGMA Blog: SEIGMA-MAGIC Annual Meeting

Alissa Mazar, the Project Manager of SEIGMA-MAGIC, shares her first experience at the 2017 SEIGMA-MAGIC Annual Meeting.

I could use many words to describe my first experience at the SEIGMA-MAGIC Annual Meeting. A few come to mind: thought provoking, motivating, engaging, and cutting-edge. Personally, however, the most accurate word to capture my experience is ‘humbling.’ As the new project manager on this first of its kind study on the social and economic impacts of expanded gambling, I came to see, first-hand, what the minds of the SEIGMA-MAGIC team do.

Read here

Volberg Speaks to the Hartford Courant Re: Connecticut Gambling Expansion

Rachel Volberg, Principal Investigator of the SEIGMA-MAGIC projects, weighs in on the expansion of gambling in Connecticut.

"What we've seen in many, many jurisdictions that get major introductions of gambling is a sharp uptick in problem gambling for one or two years and then a decline in prevalence," said Rachel A. Volberg. "But these people still remain at a greater risk, and that's more people in population with a potential problem with gambling."

Read the full article here.

SEIGMA Blog: Working at Plainridge Park Casino

The Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts (SEIGMA) study is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences

Andrew Hall of the UMass Donahue Institute, a member of the economic and fiscal analysis team for the SEIGMA project, wrote a blog explaining the team's analysis of two years worth of data from new employees at Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville, MA. Among their findings were that 50.1 percent of new hires were part-time workers or unemployed before working at the casino, and major reasons for seeking jobs at the casino were better pay, benefits, and career advancement. Read the blog here.

Volberg speaks with New York Times about problem gambling among women

SEIGMA PI Rachel Volberg is among the gambling experts who spoke to The New York Times for a recent article examining problem gambling among women.

Though problem gambling appears to be on the rise among women at or near retirement, hard numbers are difficult to find.

“There’s not much support for gambling research in the U.S.,” Volberg explained.

SEIGMA Blog: In-Depth Analysis of Gambling and Problem Gambling Predictors

Rachel Volberg, Principal Investigator on the SEIGMA project, wrote a blog examining results of the team's in-depth analysis of factors that are gambling and problem gambling predictors in Massachusetts. The team found the strongest predictor was the portion of friends and family that are regular gamblers was the strongest predictor. Read the blog here.

Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts (SEIGMA)