For my survey I focused around the research question “Do social and economic factors affect the likelihood of regular gambling in adult residents of Las Vegas?” Where regular is defined as one or more times per week and gambling is defined as a bet placed at a table, slot machine, electronic machine, or sportsbook. I would like to see if there is any correlation between certain factors and the increased likelihood of gambling.
The two variables are 1. Social and economic factors such as employment, children, marital status, and ethnicity; and 2. Regular gambling. The time order will be first the social and economic factors existing and then the gambling occurring. Empirical data will include 1,000 residents of Las Vegas being surveyed. Findings could prove either a relationship, or for them to be completely non-correlational.
A random sample of 1,000 participants will be used via Random Digit Dialing of the 702 and 752 area codes. A telephone interview will be the best method of reaching potential participants as Las Vegas has a high number of rental residences which may result in either non updated mailing information, or lead the survey to be ignored. As the survey itself is short in nature, a telephone interview will not be too long for an individual. The population of Las Vegas is slightly over 600,000 so 1,000 should give a general idea of accurate results.
To stay organized I would use a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to record data received. Individual’s names will not be recorded but their phone number would be placed on a separate list so as not to re-dial. Answer sets will be assigned a number to remain organized. Each question will have a column for answers and each participant will have an individual numbered row for their responses. This will ensure that answers do not get mixed up between respondents thereby compromising the entire study.
I will be using a closed ended question format with open ended contingency questions. This will be the simplest way to gain relevant answers. Any open ended questions are just to clarify or continue if the answer to the prior question is sufficient. The designated population will be adult residents of Las Vegas, Nevada; any individual under the age of 21 will not be eligible to partake as they are not of legal gambling age in this state; and while there are many tourists, many come to this city specifically to gamble and therefore would skew results. The ‘What’ involved in this research is the frequency of gambling and relevant factors that affect how often an individual will gamble. The ‘How’ is gaining info through a short telephone survey.
Construction issues that may be faced include relevance, do these factors even affect the results at all? Some other problems that may occur are people not answering their phones or too busy to participate, or non-qualifying participants (I.e. under the legal age to gamble) which may make the collection process more time- consuming. An issue with RDD is that some number dialed may not be in service, and some people keep their phone numbers after moving from the area which will also lead to ineligible participants. Another issue may be people not answering questions honestly, if they feel embarrassed of their gambling habit they will be likely to underreport their actual time spent gambling.
This is a cross- Sectional research on a behavior, the behavior in question being frequent gambling. Does employment or income have a relationship with frequency of gambling? Are parents more or less likely to partake at least once per week? Does marital status come into play? Are people in one zip code more or less likely than another to engage in the activity? I am going into this research with the idea that these factors do have an effect but am unsure of which direction. I believe with most of these the results could swing either way, which is why the sample size must be sufficient to reliably give information on the behavior.
Examples of the questions include classification information such as age, income, employment and marital status, and other information relevant to the survey. These questions will help to determine if there is any relationship between these social and economic factors and their frequency of gambling. The most important question is obviously the number of times per week that an individual gambles.
Potential ethical issues would be avoided as long as any staff conducting the interviews were honest and permission was given from participants. If the staff were unethical, then perhaps keeping information associated with a person’s phone number and using that data (i.e. times per week the participant gambles) to potentially jeopardize their employment or social status could be a problem. Ideally this survey will remain confidential and answers from participants will remain anonymous which would reduce any risk of an ethical problem occurring.
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