Retired cops, MD tell city casino expansion ‘will open floodgates’ to crime, addiction

Retired cops, MD tell city casino expansion ‘will open floodgates’ to crime, addiction
By Susan Lazaruk, The Province

Dr. John Blatherwick, Vancouver’s chief medical health officer from 1984 to 2007 said in a letter to council that expanding the casino and building it next to a sports stadium “ensures a fresh supply of new addicts.”

A proposed expansion of a casino in downtown Vancouver “will open the floodgates” to money laundering and organized crime, say a group of retired police officers who worked fighting those crimes during their careers.

The former officers also said a bigger, more prominent casino will drive up the number of addicted gamblers in the city.

They have written to Vancouver city council, urging them to vote against the expansion proposed by a Las Vegas-based casino for an entertainment complex planned for the empty lot near B.C. Place Stadium.

A representative of the group will join the list of presenters speaking at public hearings that are set to continue at Vancouver City Hall on Saturday morning (EDS: APRIL 9).

“When we worked as police officers, we were muzzled, but now that we’re retired we can say what we mean,” said former Sgt. Ivan Chu of the New Westminster police department, who spoke for the group of 19 ex-officers, which included sergeants, staff-sergeants, corporals, a detective, an inspector, a deputy chief constable, a superintendent and an assistant commissioner.

Chu said organized criminals can launder money with impunity in casinos because casinos typically manage to stay under police radar because there are few police calls for crimes such as drunkenness or fights because in-house security is tight.

That, coupled with major crime units unable to treat money-laundering as a priority because of limited resources, allows gangsters the opportunity to launder their money with impunity, he said.

He said he heard from sources about a gambler dropping $80,000 and then leaving to return with $40,000 more, all in $20s.

“He’s not getting that from the bank machine,” he said.

He said his group is not opposed to gambling or the average gambler enjoying a night out but an expanded casino is “going to be bigger and brighter and we’re going to be inviting more people to gamble in Vancouver. We already have enough problems and this will be opening up the floodgates for more.”

He said the bigger casino will mean the need for more services to deal with the increased crime, which will cancel out the expected revenue increase. “We can’t be naive,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. John Blatherwick, Vancouver’s chief medical health officer from 1984 to 2007, said in a letter to council that expanding the casino and building it next to a sports stadium “ensures a fresh supply of new addicts.”

“All addictions show that the more available a product is, the more of a problem the addiction becomes,” he said.

“There are already more than enough casinos in the Lower Mainland so to attract more into this one center, new recruits are needed.”

And the B.C. Psychological Association cautioned the city and province to ensure psychological support and prevention programs in place to deal with what they said would be an increased impact on gamblers from a larger casino.