Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Canadian teens are gambling online in great numbers, says Waterloo study

Three times more Canadian teenagers are gambling online than previously thought, according research from the University of Waterloo and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

Researchers found close to 10 per cent of adolescents—or an estimated 58,000 teenagers— had gambled online in the past three months. Earlier reports suggested the rate was closer to 3 per cent.

“When asked about their involvement in specific types on online gambling, like sports betting and poker, we found that teens are actually much more engaged in Internet gambling than previously thought,” said Tara Elton-Marshall, a scientist in social and epidemiological research at CAMH who co-led the study.

The study, published in BMC Public Health, found males were over four times more likely than females to gamble online. It also reported that teenagers who gamble online are more likely to participate in forms of land-based gambling like instant-win tickets, slot machines and card games.

"As the availability of government-sponsored online gaming opportunities expand and become more actively promoted, we expect the prevalence of Internet gambling among teenagers to continue to grow," said Scott Leatherdale, a professor in the School of Public Health and Health Systems at Waterloo and co-lead of the study. “The more engaged adolescents are in gambling, the more likely they are to face problematic behaviour down the road.”

The study found teenagers who gambled online already reported a higher scores of problem gambling, which includes a variety of different behaviours such as dropping out of team sports to spend time gambling or stealing from others to pay off gambling debts.

Current provincial legislation surrounding Internet gambling varies. While Saskatchewan does not offer any government-run online gambling, the Atlantic provinces only offer lottery tickets or iBingo. British Columbia, Quebec and Manitoba recently legalized Internet gambling, and in January 2015, the government of Ontario launched their own legalized online gambling platform. Researchers have yet to evaluate changes in gambling behavior since the Ontario legislation.

“Considering online gambling is now controlled and promoted by the government in some jurisdictions, such as Ontario, it’s important to evaluate the effectiveness of those actions moving forward and tweak legislation to keep teenagers off of gambling sites as long as possible,” said Professor Leatherdale.

The study looked at data collected from 10,035 high school students in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario and Saskatchewan collected as part of the 2012-2013 Canadian Youth Smoking Survey.

This project was funded by the Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (GREO), formerly the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre.

St. Paul's rises to carbon challenge

St. Paul’s University College has become a Silver pledging member with Sustainable Waterloo Region’s Regional Carbon Initiative, which means the College commits to reducing emissions by 40 percent over the next 10 years. It had previously been an observing member for two and a half years. 

Sustainable Waterloo Region is an organization that facilitates target-setting and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

“We felt it was time to make this commitment, said Lindsay Restagno, director of operations at St. Paul’s. “Not only is it in keeping with our mission and values, it’s a reasonable demand to make of ourselves at a practical level.”

St. Paul’s has already enacted a number of emission-cutting projects, including starting a program to change all lighting to LED, adding motion-sensors where feasible, and switching to high-efficiency boilers in the graduate apartment building.

Future projects include more LED lighting upgrades, replacing old boilers in the undergraduate building with high-efficiency units, installing individual temperature control on occupancy sensors in residence dorm rooms, and a strong push on educating and engaging all staff, faculty, students, and tenants in reducing energy consumption.

“With everything that we have done from a facilities standpoint, we realize that people’s energy usage habits have a significant impact on our energy usage," said Facilities Coordinator Peter Pillsworth. "This is why we want to help people understand that little changes to their everyday lives can have very big impacts on our emissions.” 

Researchers receive CFI funding

Four University of Waterloo researchers have recently received funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund.

The Department of Kinesiology’s Steven Fischer will receive $100,000 to support the investigation of biomechanical determinants of occupational performance.

Lan Wei, an electrical and computer engineering professor, was awarded $125,000 for her research into a versatile multi-physics device and circuit characterization and testing platform.

Aiping Yu, a chemical engineering professor, received $50,000 for her research that involves the development of advanced nanostructured graphene materials for clean energy storage.

M. Tamer Ozsu of the Cheriton School of Computer Science received $132,025 for research that involves scaling the cluster computing infrastructure for Scalable Big Data Management and Analysis.

The fund is designed to help universities attract and retain the best and brightest researchers from around the world by giving them state-of-the-art research tools.

Tuesday's notes

Human Resources is reporting that retiree Jacques (Jack) Pronovost died on April 4. Jack started working at the University of Waterloo in March 1981 in the Engineering Machine Shop as a Technician. He retired in May 1994 from his position of Instrument Maker in the Institute for Polymer Research in the Chemistry department. Jack was predeceased by his wife Elizabeth.

Parking Services has sent notices to those drivers with parking passes in both R and H lots warning that the lots will close this week. The reconstruction work on Parking Lot R begins on Wednesday, May 11 with curb removals followed by Parking Lot H on Thursday, May 12. Signage will be posted indicating where the work is being carried out, and alternate parking arrangements have been communicated to permit-holders via e-mail.

The Registrar's Office has informed undergraduate students that the last day for them to add classes for the spring 2016 term is Friday, May 13.

In addition, the last day to withdraw from a class with a 100 percent refund of tuition is Friday, May 20.

Athletics has reported that the PAC pool has been closed for unexpected maintenance until further notice.