Gemini Research, Ltd. is one of the only organizations internationally that specializes in managing and reporting on studies of gambling and problem gambling in the community. Work at Gemini Research is generally conducted under contract or through grants from state, provincial or national government agencies. Projects at Gemini Research have included prevalence surveys as well as projects investigating the social and economic impacts of legal gambling on communities.
Gemini Research offers an unparalleled depth of experience as well as up-to-date knowledge of methodological and theoretical developments in the field of gambling research. Staff at Gemini Research have extensive experience with survey development, questionnaire design and sampling methods as well as statistical analysis and interpretation of survey results. Staff are intimately familiar with the instruments used to assess problem and pathological gambling in clinical settings as well as in surveys, with the procedures necessary to obtain the highest quality data for these surveys, and with the challenges sometimes associated with disseminating information from these studies to multiple audiences. Gemini Research houses one of the largest existing databases on gambling and problem gambling in the general population as well as an extensive library of published and unpublished research in this area.
Dr. Rachel A. Volberg, President of Gemini Research, is widely regarded as the most experienced problem gambling epidemiologist in the world. Dr. Volberg has been involved in research on gambling and problem gambling since 1985 and she has directed or consulted on numerous studies of gambling and problem gambling in the community.
In North America, Dr. Volberg has directed baseline prevalence surveys among adults in more than 25 states and provinces and replication surveys in half of these jurisdictions. In addition to sub-national studies in the United States and Canada, Dr. Volberg has directed or consulted on two national problem gambling prevalence surveys in New Zealand as well as on national surveys in the United States, Australia, Norway and Sweden. Dr. Volberg has also directed problem gambling prevalence surveys among specialized populations, including adolescents, Native Americans and older adults.
In 1988, Dr. Volberg was the first investigator to receive funding from the (US) National Institutes of Health to study the prevalence of problem gambling in the general population. In 1998 and 1999, Dr. Volberg worked closely with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago (NORC) to design and implement the first national study of gambling behavior and impacts in the United States since 1974. In 2000, Dr. Volberg received a second grant from NIH to add a gambling module to an ongoing longitudinal study of women and drinking. Dr. Volberg has also served as a key consultant on three NIH-funded studies of problem and pathological gambling including two studies of twins and one study of the comorbidity of gambling problems and alcohol use disorders. Dr. Volberg has also served as a consultant on several research projects funded by the New Zealand Ministries of Health and Internal Affairs.
Alone and with international colleagues, Dr. Volberg has completed literature reviews on a range of topics related to gambling and problem gambling. These include two reviews of problem gambling measurement, one for the (US) National Resaerch Council and one for the New Zealand Ministry of Health. Dr. Volberg has also written reviews of research on the epidemiology of problem gambling for the (US) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs and the California Office of Problem Gambling. Finally, Dr. Volberg has written several translational reviews, including one on the uses of epidemological research to minimize gambling problems in Arizona and another encompassing a situational assessment of problem gambling services in California.
Other research activities at Gemini Research include secondary analysis of existing data sets. In additional secondary analyses of data from surveys managed by Gemini Research, Dr. Volberg has directed secondary analses of data from large national surveys in Britain and the US to identify risk factors for problem gambling and she is presently working with colleagues to complete secondary analyses of earlier data to assist in the design of an upcoming national replication survey in Sweden.
Dr. Volberg established Gemini Research, Ltd. in 1992. In addition to heading her own company, Dr. Volberg holds professorial appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles and at the National Institute of Public Health and Mental Health Research at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. She also holds an appointment as a Senior Research Scientist at NORC.
Dr. Volberg sits on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Gambling Studies, International Gambling Studies and the electronic Journal of Gambling Issues. She is a longtime member of the American Sociological Association and the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG). Since June 2003, Dr. Volberg has served as President of the NCPG after serving for ten years on the NCPG Board of Directors and for three years on the NCPG Executive Committee. Dr. Volberg is a recipient of the NCPG Herman Goldman Foundation Award as well as the NCPG Distinguished Service Award for Research.
Dr. Volberg has published extensively; her works include numerous government reports, scholarly articles and book chapters as well as a recent book, When the Chips Are Down: Problem Gambling in America (New York, NY: Century Foundation, 2001). Dr. Volberg has presented papers at national and international conferences, testified before legislative bodies at the federal as well as state and provincial levels, and has been an invited participant at several international forums on problem gambling.