‘Exchange Bandit’ speaks out on gambling addiction

‘Exchange Bandit’ speaks out on gambling addiction
Ashleigh Smollet, CityNews.ca

Kevin Pinto, otherwise known as the “Exchange Bandit,” was once convicted of robbing 10 banks in Toronto and Peel Region. But he now wants to put his past behind him and campaign in support of gambling awareness.

A former Bay Street financier, Pinto is currently on parole, serving the final stretch of his six-year sentence. Earlier this week, he appeared at the Problem Gambling Provincial Forum to discuss the toll gambling has taken on his life.

“I don’t have an issue with legalized gambling; my issue is the lack of awareness of what a gambling addiction is and how dangerous and devastating it can be to an individual who does get caught up in gambling.”

In 2008, Pinto walked away from his high-paying job at Paradigm Capital to gamble full-time. His criminal behaviour began out of a need to fund his increasing gambling addiction.

Pinto earned the nickname the “Exchange Bandit” because he would always ask bank tellers for the U.S. exchange rate before the robbery began. He was convicted in 2009.

“I’m extremely remorseful. A lot of the stuff I did was based on impulse. I never thought about the consequences. I never thought about the people I hurt while I was doing it.”

Pinto says there is a real lack of awareness of gambling problems.

“Gambling is in your face, everywhere. TV, it’s on the radio, it’s in convenience stores. Yet there’s no awareness on what a gambling addiction can do to a person.”

The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation says it’s doing its part to help problem gamblers.

“Ontario Lottery and Gaming spends $50 million a year dealing with the issue of problem gambling. $40 million of that goes to the province, to the ministry of health, who distributes that to treatment providers, to researchers and to prevention specialists to improve the situation for problem gamblers to help try to prevent it,” said Paul Pellizzari, Director of Policy and Social Responsibility for the OLG.

Pinto calls this “smoke and mirrors” and says the majority of the OLG’s revenue comes from problem gamblers or borderline problem gamblers.

According to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 3-4 per cent of gamblers are addicts and four times that many are on the borderline of addiction.

With files from Andrew Krystal