Netflix’s ‘Gambling, Explained’ and the Evolving Public Perception of Gambling

A CGS Blog entry entitled: "Netflix’s ‘Gambling, Explained’ and the Evolving Public Perception of Gambling".

“Gaming Addiction” and the Politics of Pathologies

A Critical Gambling Studies blog entry: “Gaming Addiction” and the Politics of Pathologies

Building Bridges: A Reflection on the Need to Decolonize Gambling Studies

This article is a commentary by Sylvia Kairouz, Ph.D., written for the Critical Indigenous Gambling Studies special issue of Critical Gambling Studies.

Gambling with the Windigo: Theorizing Indigenous Casinos and Gambling in Canada

The legacy of colonialism in Canada manifests through land dispossession, structural violence and assimilative policies. Casinos are an anomaly emerging in Canada, becoming major economic engines, generating capital for housing, education, health, and language and cultural rejuvenation programs. On the other hand, the literature on Indigenous casinos raises crucial questions about compromised sovereignty, addiction, and neocolonial economic and political entrapment. This article theorises Indigenous casinos as a modern expression of the windigo. In Algonquian oral history, the windigo is a mythic giant cannibal. The underlying meaning of the windigo is the consumption of Indigenous peoples leading to illness and death. One can become a windigo and consume others, and one must always be cautious of this possibility. I propose casinos and Indigenous-provincial gambling revenue agreements are modern-day windigook (plural form of windigo). This framework provides an urgently needed new theorisation of casinos, grounded in Indigenous epistemology and ontology.

Book review: Sulkunen, P., Babor, T., Cisneros Örnberg, J., Egerer, M., Hellman, M., Livingstone, C., Marionneau, V., Nikkinen, J., Orford, J., Room, R. & Rossow, I. (2019). Setting Limits: Gambling, Sciences and Public Policy.

This article is a book review of Setting Limits: Gambling, Sciences and Public Policy (Sulkunen et al., 2019). This policy-oriented book, authored by an international group of experts, is intended for public health professionals and policymakers, and provides a comprehensive review of research on worldwide gambling trends, addiction and related public health issues.

Editorial: What are Critical Indigenous Gambling Studies?

Editorial by the Editors of the special issue, "Critical Indigenous Gambling Studies".

Gaming in Kahnawà:ke

This is an article by Murray Marshall to be published as a commentary in the CIGS issue.

Leveling Up: Reminiscing on the Evolution of Gambling within the Video Game Industry

This article is an expert commentary by digital artist Caitlyn Salmon, written for the Critical Indigenous Gambling Studies special issue of Critical Gambling Studies.

Gambling in Ancient North America

Gambling in ancient North America was primarily an intergroup activity. This position as a liminal practice, taking place on territorial frontiers and at large intertribal gatherings, puts gaming on the very forefront of cultural transmission and knowledge exchange, with several implications. Intergroup gaming results in a shared fluency of games, transcending barriers of language and ethnicity. Evidence of common methods and materials allows ancient, region-spanning social networks to be identified. And subtle variations demonstrate a repeated and ongoing negotiation between groups over time as objectives and participants change, with this evolution of gaming practices continuing to the present day. The freedom to adapt to changing conditions, contrasted with notions of a static “traditional” past, is not just a matter of sovereignty relating to Indigenous games. It is a reflection of the nature of Indigenous gaming as it has always been.

WAI 1909 – The Waitangi Tribunal Gambling Claim

In 2008, I lodged a claim with the Waitangi Tribunal in regard to problem gambling and its negative impacts on Māori people. The Tribunal is tasked with hearing grievances related to Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi) signed in 1840 between Māori and the British Crown. It is a historical claim focused on the lack of adequate protection of taiohi Māori (young people of Māori descent) and the intergenerational harm caused by problem gambling among their whānau, hapū, iwi (extended families and relatives) and urban Māori communities. However, this begs the question how can a Treaty claim improve the health outcomes of a generation of taiohi Māori who have been exposed to commercial gambling and its aggressive and targeted expansion and marketing? This paper frames the WAI-1909 claim as a Kaupapa Māori (Māori research approach) derived from the research of three wahine toa (warrior women) supporting the claim; and refers to epistemological standpoints of Māori women working in the gambling research space. I demonstrate how the gambling claim challenges the New Zealand government to honour the promises in the articles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and to protect the rights of its citizens, especially taiohi Māori. The WAI-1909 gambling claim concludes that whilst the New Zealand Gambling Act (2003) includes a public health approach to problem gambling, it has not adequately addressed the rights of tangata whenua (Māori, the first people of Aotearoa/New Zealand) under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.