Gamblor’s World

Ideally Canada ’s Gambling Watch Network would have some news gatherers and at least one Newsletter writer in every province or region. As it is now too few of us do too much of what needs to be done despite the fact that many of our fellow citizens agree with our standpoint on gambling. If you do have the time, PLEASE, give us a helping hand!

Canada
The fact that some B.C. casino workers have said that they have seen gamblers wearing diapers so they would not have to leave their slot machines, seems to have made quite an impression country-wide. A CP item that we’ve seen in several papers, calls it a troubling symbol of problem gambling. We now know how many cups of fluid the diapers hold, how many layers they have, and how much they cost. Some researchers are alarmed that there are gamblers that much involved in what our governments call entertainment.

“Gambling Governments’ Dangerous Addiction” is a 5/15 dated article in Volume 4, No. 9 of Policy & Politics - National Review of Medicine - by Samuel Jarjour, published by Parkhurst Publishing. It came at the week’s end and we’ll cover it in our next Newsletter.

North West Territories

The 5/7 CBC News reports that the number of people gambling in the NWT is going up, while the number of smokers is in decline, according to the findings of the NWT’s latest addictions survey. Quote: “Recently-released numbers from the 2006 N.W.T. Addictions Survey show that 35 per cent of respondents have spent $20 or more on gambling every week. That number is up from 22 per cent in 1996.” Females and males are now nearly at the same level, while the 25- to 39-year-old age group reached about 38%.

British Columbia
“Ex-bookkeeper scolded for embezzling scheme” is one of the many items about fraud that causes us to wonder if gambling was at least one of the reasons why it occurred. At times, we’d almost suspect that “gaming” advocates have the power to hide the harm it is doing. This article appeared in the 5//8 Times Colonist.

5/8 and 9 articles in ‘TheTyee.ca’, an online publication, accuse the BC government of hiding information that citizens have the right to know. You can find those items – they also mention the BC Lottery Corporation - on Tyee’s web site.

“Gambling trap snares MLA, addicts and government”, a 5/13 item in the Times Colonist by Paul Willcocks, opens with these words: “The government’s hypocrisy on gambling is showing again. It’s obvious that the Liberals have smashed their 2001 campaign promise to “halt the expansion of gambling that has increased gambling addiction and put new strains on families.”

Alberta
“Alberta woman convicted of defrauding friends, family of $22M” is the title of a story in the 5/7 National Post that contains this sentence: “One picture was of a woman addicted to the blackjack tables with a spending habit of almost a $1-million a month who eventually gambled more than $10- million.” Typical of the harm done by gambling is described in a quote from this story: “What is certainly true is that Braun’s fraud left behind a legacy of ruined lives, financial hardship and even broken marriages. To the people of Waskatenau, her betrayal is still so painful that they cannot talk openly about it and prefer anonymity”.

“A new report into Calgary’s homelessness situation concludes the city needs to double its addiction treatment beds within three years, or face a problem of pandemic proportions” is the opening paragraph of an article in the 5/12 Calgary Herald that talks of addictions to alcohol and drugs without mentioning gambling.

Saskatchewan
We made an error in last week’s Newsletter: the seven articles we received last Saturday appeared in the Regina Leader-Post and not in the Toronto Star. We offer our apologies. If you take a look at the lines in our Newsletter just below its list of our email addresses, it will be clear to you that we found no time to study all those items. What made all that even more difficult was the fact that on Tuesday the Saskatoon StarPhoenix had a series of five gambling articles. What we’ll do this time: give you a list of the titles of the items the two papers published, followed by a few words on our view of gambling. If you have any questions for us, please feel free to email us and we’ll try to find time to reply.

The seven items in the Regina post had these titles: City (Swift Current) supports First Nations Casino; Building careers in gaming industry; With new casinos opening, industry will have matured; Addiction - The dark side of gaming; First Nations gaming deal in works; Regina, Moose Jaw casinos have become profit centres; Want to gamble? Take a bus tour. The StarPhoenix items had these names: Providing jobs root of First Nations casinos; Road trips inexpensive social affairs for seniors; Entertainment value key to casino industry; Casino jobs provide dignity, pride; Karwacki seeks accountability on casino revenue spending.

Some of the words used in the titles of these articles – gaming when it is about gambling, and industry when it deals with a business that doesn’t produce anything, are enough to remind us of the fact that on our continent gambling was started by a group of mobsters who managed to make it appear like an honest business rather than a parasite affair. That mobsters’ attitude proved to be very infectious. It has infected state as well as provincial governments on our continent despite the fact that well-informed economists more than once have explained that gambling, when all costs are included, does only lasting harm, not only to men, women and families who get affected by it, but also to our economy as a whole. It’s a sad fact of life that many persons and institutions that know very well that gambling is extremely damaging all over, seem to have fallen asleep and fail to be active against it. That’s one of the reasons why our activists are far busier than they ought to be.

Manitoba
“Poker fun pays off for winner”, the title of a 5/13 Winnipeg Sun item, reports that a local woman has gained a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt SS in a poker contest run by that paper with the help of General Motors.

Ontario
Last week, we mentioned a planned meeting of politicians on the big question of whether Niagara ’s casinos are as good corporate citizens as they could be. In this week, the Niagara Falls Review had four more articles on this subject, and in its 5/12 issue this paper reports that Ontario’s infrastructure minister David Caplan has a date with Niagara officials to discuss their concerns about the effect Niagara’s casinos are having on the city. Here is a quote: “Caplan, who is responsible for the province’s gambling industry, has scheduled May 31 to meet Mayor Ted Salci, Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor and Art Frank, president of Niagara Casinos, which manages Casino Niagara and Niagara Fallsview Casino. Craitor arranged the meeting after council members said they wanted to discuss improving the relationship between the casinos and the city. Craitor notified city hall Friday, Salci said.”

The 5/10, paper had a 3-page long article saying that Art Frank is Niagara ’s casino king.

The 5/5 Sarnia Observer writes that the Village Bingo will be closed for two weeks while the new government rules for bingo are explored. On the same day, the paper reports that the Hiawatha Horse Park & Entertainment Centre wants to add an indoor-outdoor driving range to its facilities. Three days later, it says that the new bingo rules are unwelcome to local charities and so far have not been worked out.

In “County gets $$ from Trillium” the 5/10 Belleville Intelligencer reports that the Prince Edward County Round Table received $32,500 from the Trillium Foundation (losses of gamblers) for a purpose that we don’t see as a charity; the 5/8 Ottawa Citizen publishes a letter to the Editor pointing out that finding parking spaces for a down town casino won’t be easy, and the 5/12 London Free Press writes that the smoking room availability at the Paradise Bingo located on the Munsee Delaware First Nation reserve contributed greatly to making its grand opening a great success.

Atlantic Canada

It will be somewhat difficult to distinguish between the items from the various Atlantic Provinces since this week almost all of them dealt with the Atlantic Lottery Corporation which – as we know – likes to bleed money from all of them.

We’ll begin with the one that arrived yesterday. It’s a CP item that appeared in the 5/12 New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. In it we read that the RCMP is to probe “suspicious” Atlantic lottery winnings and that “Michelle Carinci, president and CEO of the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, apologized for the agency’s lax security, saying she would take responsibility for fixing the problems.” A quote: “In the latest blow to Canada’s embattled lottery business, a forensic accounting team found what the Crown-owned agency described as ‘unethical’ and ‘suspicious’ dealings between some retailers and purchasers in Atlantic Canada.”

In a different article that appeared in the 5/13 Halifax Herald, a Toronto statistician states that the chance of winning a lottery in Atlantic Canada is even less than elsewhere. It is his opinion that Lottery players are twice as likely to die in a car crash on the way to the store to get their tickets, than to win the big jackpot.

Prince Edward Island
On 5/10 The Guardian has an article with the title: “NDP promoting total ban on VLTs”; in it we found this paragraph: “Standing in front of historic Province House, Constable said an NDP government would ban VLTs from across the province, including at the Charlottetown Driving Park Entertainment Centre”. What we’ve read lately about PEI ’s horseracing hobbyists would mean that his stance would cause them to try to beat him.

Nova Scotia
A CP article in the 5/8 Halifax Daily Press reports that Nova Scotia ’s ombudsman has found that staff at a Cape Breton casino are not trained to identify gambling addicts as required under provincial law. This comes as a reaction to – as we wrote in our letter last week - the story of a Sydney man who claimed that his compulsive gambling cost him $500,000 and his marriage, and who hopes a new report forces Nova Scotia’s two casinos to do a better job of dealing with problem gamblers.

“Educating VLT addicts about their addiction” is the title of an article in the 5/7 Halifax Herald that tells of a free workshop titled ‘a Day of Help’ set up by GameOverVLTS.com

of which activist Debbie Langille is the spokesperson. Some of our activists were there to help Debbie. Roger Horbay, described as “Ontario expert in the software and mechanics of VLTs who travels the world to share what he’s learned with those who may need help, attended along with “Montreal addictions counsellor (and radio broadcast speaker) Sol Boxenbaum”.

Canada’s Gambling Watch Network is not alone in its struggle against the continuing expansion of gambling in Canada . Going to http://www.citizenvoice.ca will give you more information on this group, while Game Planit reveals the truth about slots and other Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs). Find out how deceptive the machines can be from virtual reels to concealed odds. All things in the EGMs are designed to addict the player. Visit http://www.gameplanit.com for more information on this subject.

Anyone who wants to join the class-action suit against Loto-Québec, or to find out more on that issue, should go to a link on website www.vivaconsulting.com pointing the way.

Also: a group of activists in Nova Scotia established the Web site gameovervlts, it has many stories that show what pathological gambling does to individuals and their families.

Our Blueprint for action to reform Canadian gambling law, policies & practices into real public interest will be e-mailed to anyone who asks for it.

We’re always open to Guest Editorials and Letters to the Editor. Placing an item doesn’t mean that we agree with the opinion expressed. As a coalition of a variety of groups and people, our “party line” leaves room for differences of opinion, and we welcome them!

Help!

Due to the closing of our former Internet server, our Web site is presently inaccessible. Its contents are a part of our extensive archives, so it can be rebuilt. We are badly in need of a volunteer Web Master or Mistress with the ability and the willingness to do this.

We are always looking for persons who have the time, the interest and the ability to help us finding news articles about gambling from coast to coast. We are doing our best to be a Canada-wide organization, but the fact that many newspapers (especially in Atlantic Canada!) restrict access to their site to subscribers makes it necessary to find activists in all provinces to make sure that items of importance are not missed. All that our activists need is a computer and access to the Internet. Do not be afraid of your own inexperience: in the 7 years of our existence, we have more than once helped new people to get started!

We should add here that Canada ’s Gambling Watch Network also needs financial help. For some seven years our expenses have been paid mainly from the pockets of generous activists, and a few years ago we began to try to get regular supporters. We will continue to look for subscribers to our Newsletter. The minimum membership is $10 per year, the regular is $20 annually, and any bigger amounts will be received with thanks. We cannot issue receipts that will be recognized by Canada ’s taxation system. How can we actively oppose gambling without being politically active?

Please contact us if you want more information on items in this letter or on their sources.