Health officer absent from responsible gambling conference Dr. Perry Kendall invited but declines to attend

Health officer absent from responsible gambling conference Dr. Perry Kendall invited but declines to attend
                                                                                                                              Mike Howell / Vancouver Courier January 23, 2014 - See more at: http://www.vancourier.com/health-officer-absent-from-responsible-gambling-conference-1.800007#sthash.Nk76PkOy.dpuf

Dr. Perry Kendall, Provincial Health Officer for B.C. Photo: Adrian Lam, Times Colonist

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Dr. Perry Kendall, Provincial Health Officer for B.C. Photo: Adrian Lam, Times Colonist

A long list of “responsible gambling experts” from across the country and other parts of the world will be at the Vancouver Convention Centre next week for a two-day conference hosted by the B.C. Lottery Corporation.

But one expert who released a comprehensive report last fall that showed the most severe form of problem gambling in B.C. is on a dramatic rise won’t be at the conference.

Provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall confirmed through his office that he won’t attend The New Horizons in Responsible Gambling Conference but declined to be interviewed to explain his absence.

Chris Fairclough, a spokesperson for the lottery corporation, said Kendall and other public health officers in B.C. were invited to the conference but failed to respond.

“The invitations were broadly circulated a number of months ago but we didn’t receive anything back from Dr. Kendall,” Fairclough said. “It would have been great to have him attend. I can’t speak to why he isn’t.”

The conference runs Monday and Tuesday at the convention centre and promises to bring together academics, industry types and those working in treatment and prevention.

Professor Dr. Mark Griffiths of Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, England is a psychologist and will talk about the concerns related to gambling marketing and whether advertising creates unrealistic hopes of winning that may later trigger a gambling addiction.

Another psychologist, Dr. Sally Gainsbury of Australia’s Southern Cross University will provide an overview of gambling reforms in her home country, including the addition of “dynamic responsible gambling messages” posted on electronic gaming machines.

Dr. Claudia Steinke, an assistant professor at the University of Lethbridge, will discuss the psychological and behavioural impacts of casino design.

When Kendall released his report, Lower the Stakes: A Public Health Approach to Gambling in British Columbia in October, he made 17 recommendations aimed at the government to address gambling addiction and to improve the response to emerging problems in the industry.

His report revealed the number of people with a severe gambling problem increased from nearly 13,000 in 2002 to 31,000 in 2007.

While B.C. has moderate to high levels of revenue from gaming, the report said the province spends the lowest amount per capita of revenue — $5.6 million in 2011/2012 — on problem gambling in Canada.

The annual gross gaming revenue for the provincial government steadily increased between 2002 and 2012, going from $1.1 billion to $2.1 billion.

The conference comes as Dr. John Carsley of Vancouver Coastal Health and former city social planner Mario Lee continue to conduct a public health review of Edgewater Casino, Hastings Racecourse and Planet Bingo.

City council tasked Carsley and Lee with the review to see what the three facilities have in place to address the risks associated to gambling. A report is expected in the next few months.

In December, the city’s development permit board granted Paragon Holdings — owners of Edgewater — a preliminary development application to proceed with the construction of a $535-million casino complex adjacent to B.C. Place Stadium.

Before Paragon gets final approval, it has to meet several conditions including creating a harm reduction strategy for gamblers.
 

- See more at: http://www.vancourier.com/health-officer-absent-from-responsible-gambling-conference-1.800007#sthash.Nk76PkOy.dpuf

Funding delay ‘seriously impairs’ River Cree Casino

Funding delay ‘seriously impairs’ River Cree Casino
Default on $100 million debt could cause bankruptcy action
By Gary Lamphier and Lewis Kelly, edmontonjournal.com
April 20, 2012

EDMONTON — Alberta’s largest destination resort casino faces a possible bankruptcy filing after defaulting on more than $100 million of debt owed to a group of major financial institutions.

River Cree Resort and Casino — co-owned by Las Vegas-based Paragon Gaming and the Enoch Cree First Nation — failed to meet a deadline to repay $111 million of term loans due to a group of six lenders.

The debt, representing the balance of a $180 million financing package secured by River Cree’s owners in 2006 when the sprawling casino, hotel and entertainment complex west of Edmonton was built, was due Monday, a court filing states.

River Cree’s lending syndicate — which includes the giant Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, BMO Guardian Capital and Mackenzie Financial, among others — subsequently issued a notice demanding repayment of the loans, the filing states.

The dispute appears to have been triggered, at least in part, by an alleged interruption in the normal flow of funds to the resort complex from the province’s First Nations Development Fund (FNDF), administered by the department of International, Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Relations.

In an application filed with Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench early this week, Paragon is seeking an order directing two trust companies — CIBC Mellon Trust and BNY Trust Co. of Canada — to disburse $11.7 million of FNDF funds that Paragon alleges are currently frozen.

“CIBC has refused to transfer the FNDF funds from the FNDF account,” Paragon president Scott Menke said in an affidavit.

“The FNDF funds are used, among other uses, to fund the operations of the resort. Without the FNDF funds, (Paragon’s) ability to operate the resort is and will be seriously impaired.”

In an interview, Menke said the River Cree Casino remains very successful, and the owners recently secured a refinancing commitment from a major Canadian bank to replace the outstanding loans, a source said.

“The River Cree Casino is one of the most successful casinos in Western Canada. We’re upset by the recent decision coming out of aboriginal relations, and confused by it. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail,” Menke told the Journal.

“The government knew of the April 15 deadline for our existing loan. We have been negotiating with the government for a year, and we’re baffled as to why they haven’t taken that seriously. Now we find ourselves in default.”

In his affidavit, Menke said a department official expressed concern that the proposed uses of the FNDF funds in 2012 differ from the original uses outlined under a 2005 agreement. But he said that is incorrect.

Mike Deising, a spokesman for the department of Intergovernmental, International and Aboriginal Relations, disputed Paragon’s version of events.

“Paragon is entitled to its opinion and interpretation on things. What I can tell you is we have a grant agreement with Enoch. It’s a seven-year agreement, dating back to 2005 ... saying that we’re going to direct FNDF funding,” he said.

“To date we’ve given Enoch $190 million. By the end of this year, we will give them $212 million, when the grant ends. We just gave Enoch $11 million last week. We are directing funds to Enoch as per the FNDF grant application that they have right now, that expires at the end of this year,” he said.

“FNDF money cannot be used for gaming operations or security or per capita distribution. Other than that, everything’s on the table.”

Despite the loan default and the ongoing dispute over access to FNDF funds, Menke said River Cree will continue to operate normally, and there will be no short-term impact on its employees.

“The casino will stay open for a long period of time. We’re ready to do whatever it takes for the next periods of time to work with government to see that we can get through it. The casino employs 800 people, provides $45 million dollars in goods and services to the greater Edmonton area, it brings in tourism from all parts of the province,” he said.

“We would have never thought that we’d be in this situation. We’d had such a great working relationship with all levels of the Alberta government. To find ourselves in this situation ... is very upsetting to us.”

2011 in Review: Vancouver Gambling Opposition

Unrest drove Vancouver politics in 2011
Cup riot, Occupy Vancouver, casino protests rocked city hall
By Mike Howell, Staff writer

A mega casino proposal, a hockey riot and an international protest movement were all tied to Mayor Gregor Robertson and his 10 city councillors.

But first a look back to the spring and Las Vegas-based Paragon Gaming’s proposal to build a mega casino adjacent to B.C. Place Stadium. From the outset, many city hall watchers predicted city council would rubber stamp the proposal that was first announced by former premier Gordon Campbell.

But after a marathon session of public hearings, all bets were off on a predictable outcome. A strong lobby by grassroots group Vancouver Not Vegas! , which attracted a wide array of prominent Vancouverites, countered an organized push from casino employees. Council voted unanimously to quash the proposal for 1,500 slot machines and 150 games tables. It, however, left the door open for Paragon to move its casino licence from Edgewater Casino at the Plaza of Nations to the property adjacent to B.C. Place Stadium.

So what possibly can the news gods have in store for 2012 that will erase memories of burning police cars, protest camps and mega casinos?

Edgewater tops list of criminal incidents

Edgewater tops list of criminal incidents at province’s casinos
By GORDON HOEKSTRA, Vancouver Sun


More criminal incidents such as assaults, cheating and thefts took place at the Edgewater Casino in Vancouver than at any other casino or gambling centre in the province between 2005 and 2010, according to data obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

The Edgewater, with annual revenues of more than $110 million and 3,000 to 5,500 customers a day, is one of B.C.’s largest casinos, located in the heart of Vancouver’s downtown entertainment district at the Plaza of Nations on False Creek.

Responding to the Edgewater’s top criminal-incident ranking, Paragon Gaming Corp. spokeswoman Tamara Hicks said the casino has a safe environment, a product of its advanced security and surveillance system and highly trained staff.

“Our security systems are very comparable, if not stronger, than a bank,” she said. “We track everything. The cameras are there. You can’t go to the bathroom without being watched.”

Hicks said because of its location – near BC Place Stadium, Rogers Arena and numerous bars — not all incidents reported by the casino to BC Lotteries Corp. are directly related to the Edgewater’s operation.

“People come into the facility to report crimes all the time. You have to take that into consideration,” she said of the casino’s number of criminal incidents.

As a condition of their licences, casino and gaming centres are required to report all types of suspicious incidents to B.C. Lotteries, which manages commercial gambling in the province.

Since the largest casinos are in the Lower Mainland, rarely does a casino in other areas of the province top a criminal incident category reported to B.C. Lotteries.

Police agencies in the Lower Mainland do not consider their responses to criminal incidents at casinos a drain on resources, however.

Through a request under B.C.’s Freedom of Information Act, The Sun obtained a database of incident reports from casinos and gaming centres from Jan. 1, 2005, to July 22, 2010.

The 292,562 reported incidents covered everything from lost chips, false fire alarms, assaults and unattended children.

Of the incident reports, 9,532 were categorized as criminal in nature.

The Edgewater had the most criminal incidents reported during the more-than-five-year period at 1,171, followed by the Cascades Casino in Langley (952) and the Boulevard Casino in Coquitlam (853).

Criminal incidents fall into 20 categories, including arson, assaults, bomb threats, disturbances, drugs, false identification, fraud, gambling cheats, harassment and indecent exposure. Also on the list are internal thefts, prostitution, robbery, thefts from the casino, thefts from others, threats, trespass, unattended children, underage patrons and vandalism.

The criminal incident reports do not cover suspected money laundering and loan-sharking activities, which must be reported under federal law to the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, according to BC Lotteries officials.

During the five-year period covered by the database, the Edgewater topped the list in assaults (63), followed by the Cascades in Langley (58) and the River Rock in Richmond (49).

The Edgewater also topped the incident list for thefts from the casino (58), theft from others (420) and gambling cheats (68).

A gambling cheat incident is any attempt at cheating by a player. It could include adding or taking away bets or the use of a spectator to find out other players’ hands.

The Boulevard in Port Coquitlam led categories in fraud (21), vandalism (84) and harassment (26). The Cascades in Langley barred the most problem patrons from their site (3,802), followed by the Edgewater (2,365) and River Rock (1,598).

The total number of reported criminal incidents is spread among 40 casinos, six of which shut down between 2005 and 2010.

It means the average number of incidents each year in a particular category at a casino is often low.

For example, the Edgewater had an average of about one dozen assaults and cheating incidents reported annually from 2005 to 2010.

In the theft-from-others category, the Edgewater on average logged less than two incidents per week.

In a rare case of a smaller casino making the top of a criminal incident category, the Treasure Cove Casino in Prince George in northern B.C. had the third most reported drug incidents, at 102, during the five-year period.

The Starlight Casino in New Westminster reported the most drug incidents (213), followed by the Cascades in Langley (117).

The Treasure Cove, with an annual revenue of $45 million in the fiscal year 2010-11, is much smaller than the largest casinos like the Boulevard ($152 million), Starlight ($119 million) and the Cascades ($113 million).

The Great Canadian Gaming Corp.-owned River Rock, with $260 million in annual revenues, is the largest casino in the province, but it did not top any of the criminal-incident categories.

Among the large casinos in the Lower Mainland, it had the second most gambling cheats (48), third most assaults (49) and sixth most drug incidents (21).

Howard Blank, Great Canadian vice-president of media and entertainment, said he believes a relaxing environment, security that includes licence-plate recognition and staff training create an environment at the River Rock that defuses and discourages criminal acts. “I just think the people that are going to cause a problem are going to stay away,” said Blank.

The only criminal-incident category led by smaller casinos outside the Lower Mainland was children being left unattended, usually in parking lots.

Casino Nanaimo reported 86 incidents, followed by the Treasure Cove in Prince George (80) and Chances Terrace (58),

While the larger casinos almost always top the criminal incidents lists, taking the size of a casino into consideration changes that picture.

When a casino or gambling centre’s revenue is divided by the number of criminal incidents, the smaller ones generally have higher criminal incident rates than the large ones.

Gambling centres in Squamish, Terrace and Prince Rupert had the top three total criminal incident rates, according to a comparison compiled by The Sun using revenue data from 2005-2010.

The annual revenue at these small centres — Squamish ($4.8 million), Terrace ($9.9 million) and Prince Rupert ($8.4 million) — is dwarfed by that of the larger centres.

Of the casinos and gaming centres with the top 10 criminal incidents rates, only two were large casinos from the Lower Mainland — the Starlight at No. 8 and the Edgewater at No. 9.

Gambling centres in Langley and Terrace, and Lake City Casino in Kelowna, had the highest rate of assaults.

Not a single large casino made the list of the top 10 highest rates for unattended children, which was led by gambling centres in Squamish, Terrace and Abbotsford.

In an interview, B.C. Lotteries director of operational compliance Bryon Hodgkin said Lotteries BC had not noticed a higher rate of criminal incidents at smaller operations.

Hodgkin, a former RCMP inspector, also said he wouldn’t draw any conclusions from the incident report data, including why, for example, the Cascades in Langley barred from its site 3,802 people between 2005 and 2010, 40-per-cent more than at the Edgewater in second spot. (At the Cascades, the data show that 2,185 of the bans were alcohol-related, but in another 1,600 cases no reason was cited).

Hodgkin also said there were no conclusions to be drawn from the fact that more unattended-children incident reports took place at smaller casinos outside the Lower Mainland.

Hodgkin said a problem with interpreting the data is that it is possible different observers could mark incidents in different categories.

Hodgkin also said BC Lotteries’ database does not allow incidents that turn out to be unsubstantiated to be taken off the list, which means the incidents could be overstated.

He said it is making changes so incidents can be marked off as unsubstantiated, and there are plans to tighten up the categories.

Said Hodgkin: “I hope that three years down the road, I can say here’s what happened, and this is the trend.”

Simon Fraser University criminologist Rob Gordon said it makes little sense to collect the incident data from casinos and then say you cannot draw any conclusions from it.

Gordon, director of the school of criminology, said he suspects the data are simply not being analyzed to determine if there are problems at casinos.

For example, he said, the higher criminal incident rates at smaller casinos could be a result of bigger casinos being watched more carefully.

If the data was being analyzed, it should be reported publicly, and it would not be necessary to use the Freedom of Information Act to access it, said Gordon.

10-046 Settlement Record

Vancouver mayor promises no gaming expansion

Local opposition to expanded gambling grows with: Vancouver Not Vegas


Vancouver mayor promises no gaming expansion
Gregor Robertson promises 3-year moratorium at launch of election campaign

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson launched his re-election bid Wednesday morning by promising his council would put a moratorium on any gaming expansion in the next three years.

"In a campaign, it is often just as important to say what you won’t do as it is to say what you will do — and Vision Vancouver won’t allow expanded gaming in our city," said Robertson.

"A Vision Vancouver city council will implement a comprehensive moratorium on the expansion of gambling in Vancouver, and we will continue to take a clear stand against the idea of a major destination mega-casino in the heart of our city’s dynamic downtown core."

The proposal for a hotel and casino destination in the city's downtown near BC Place stadium was announced last year and drew heavy public debate, with people vocally advocating for and against casino expansion.

Las Vegas-based Paragon Gaming planned to replace an existing casino near the stadium as part of a huge redevelopment of the area, which would also include a hotel.

The existing casino has 600 slot machines, and Paragon wanted to double that, as well as add 75 more gaming tables.

That plan was unanimously defeated by city council. The redevelopment project is expected to go ahead without the slot expansion.

Gaming expansion 'off the table'
Robertson made a similar pledge last spring after council rejected a $500-million expansion of the Edgewater Casino.

But now Robertson says councillors won't even consider casino proposals.

"This is going farther than what we said that we would do back in April. Today — we are saying that there will be no reviews or studies on expanded gambling. That is off the table," Robertson said.

"The Vision Vancouver team listened to the voices of citizens and community groups and hear overwhelming public opposition to expanded gambling."

Robertson also took aim at Non-Partisan Association (NPA) opponent Suzanne Anton.

Anton voted with Robertson to put a moratorium on the expansion project at BC Place stadium, but she has also criticized Robertson's handling of the matter.

"The NPA is unwilling or unable to take a coherent stand against massive gambling expansion in Vancouver despite a clear outcry from the public," said Vision City Council candidate Tony Tang.

"Voters can count on the Vision team to keep building a Vancouver economy that is renowned worldwide for being innovative, dynamic, creative and sustainable — a truly liveable city — and a downtown mega-casino simply does not fit with that economic vision."

Robertson said his council would also reject any plan to move slot machines from Hastings Park downtown.

Anton accuses Robertson of flip-flopping
Anton, meanwhile, shot back at Robertson Wednesday afternoon, accusing the mayor of flip-flopping.

Anton, who is currently a Vancouver city councillor, said she and the rest of council voted for a moratorium on the casino expansion project with conditions. It wasn't a vote to kill the project, she said.

"The conditions were ... the public had to agree, there had to be public acceptance ... and B.C. lotteries had to demonstrate security of the operations. Once those conditions were satisfied, said council, an application could come back to council," she said.

"Now what's Gregor doing? Is he saying he didn't believe in his own vote? He doesn't stand by his own vote?"

Shortly after Robertson released his platform statement, the Canadian Gaming Association issued a news release noting gaming is a growth industry fuelled by consumer demand.

The release said gaming accounts for 253,487 Canadian jobs.

However, a coalition of community and social groups formed Vancouver Not Vegas to oppose the casino.

Civic elections are being held throughout B.C. on Nov. 19.

Former Passamaquoddy police chief sentenced for ‘stunning betrayal’

Former Passamaquoddy police chief sentenced to 9 months for ‘stunning betrayal’
By Sharon Kiley Mack, BDN Staff
Bangor Daily News

MACHIAS, Maine — Calling former Pleasant Point police chief Joseph Barnes’ behavior “a stunning betrayal,” Justice Allen Hunter sentenced him on Thursday to nine months in jail.

Barnes, 42, pleaded guilty in April — sobbing through most of the proceeding — to stealing more than $33,000 from the Passamaquoddy Tribe to fuel a gambling habit mostly at casinos in Connecticut and Louisiana. Barnes’ sentencing was postponed until Thursday because of his tenuous emotional state.

Barnes took the money from various tribal accounts between April 2007 and May 2008, according to court documents.

In April, Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin said Barnes avoided tribal and U.S. Department of Interior investigations for months.

Robbin explained that Barnes, who was an honored and decorated police chief, began funneling thousands of dollars into a so-called soda account, and then “frittered it all away” at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut and another casino in Marksville, La. [Paragon Casino Resort]

Robbin said Barnes refused to answer questions when the tribe’s chief financial officer discovered that thousands of dollars were suddenly being deposited in the soda account that was being supported by a single vending machine in the police station.

Those deposits then were being withdrawn by Barnes, either through automatic teller machines at casinos or checks written out to cash.

After being confronted in May 2009, Barnes resigned as the police chief and did not provide tribal leaders with an exit interview.

In Washington County Superior Court on Thursday, Justice Hunter also ordered Barnes to pay back all the funds he stole from the tribe as well as the tribe’s attorney’s fees. The final amount was approximately $42,000.

Court personnel said a large group of Barnes’ supporters were on hand in the courtroom, reportedly hoping the judge would be lenient.

Gambling's Dirty Little Secret

When a Business Model is erected based on creating New Gamblers and the financial success is dependent on creating Gambling Addicts, is it truly a 'moral issue' ?

It is known that Gambling Addicts have the lowest rate of self-referral and the highest rate of SUICIDE.

When we allow ourselves to be blinded by the false promises of overstated jobs and exaggerated revenues and ignore the clearly defined Business Model, how does that define our priorities?

Ken Lum tells of father's devastating gambling addiction, as moral issues surface at casino hearings

Jenny Uechi

Moral questions surrounding gambling surfaced repeatedly in today's public hearing on casino expansion. Councillors pressed casino proponents hard, eliciting some surprising answers from casino expansion proponents.

"Why have only the employees come out in favour of the expansion so far?" Councillor David Cadman asked an Edgewater employee. "Why have almost no patrons have come to speak in favour of an expanded casino at BC Place?"

Alan Stokes, an Edgewater employee, said there was a “public perception” was that gambling was seen as a bad thing by society and admitted that he did not discuss his job with his children.

“I have two children, 11 and 13, and I haven’t told them that I work in a casino,” he said. “It’s not because I’m embarrassed of my job,” he quickly added. “But the legal gambling age is 19, and I don’t think I need to tell them about it now.”

Stokes said that he was himself a gambler, and that while he had it under control, felt he could make more money from casinos as a casino employee.

As councillor Woodsworth's question about public perception of gambling led to a discussion about churches' long opposition to gambling, Mayor Gregor Robertson interrupted the conversation, saying the hearing was to be focused on rezoning.

The issue, however, surfaced repeatedly in different words throughout the hearing, coming to a head when Paul Smith, director of corporate social responsibility at BCLC began to speak. After his statement that BCLC "neither glamorizes nor condemns” gambling, councillor Heather Deal brought up an image of River Rock Casino’s racy “party pit" ad on her screen, showing an image of a scantily-clad young woman with Photoshopped clothes.

Deal asked if BCLC considered the ad “socially responsible,” prompting Smith to reply that the ads were created by the marketing department.

Artist Ken Lum said the casino issue prompted him to speak for the first time publicly about his father's addiction to gambling.

"I've seen first hand what happens when family members become addicted to gambling," he said, noting that he had emailed all the councillors about his personal experience with gambling. Lum then spoke of his mother's beating at the hands of his father's loansharks, and the women in the Chinese community who he said are working double shifts to work off debts "My life is fine now, but my father's still addicted to gambling...he still calls me up for money," he said, with some difficulty.

"It's largely hidden. It's a source of shame, especially in the Chinese community," Lum said, echoing speakers at the Saturday hearing who said that gambling disproportionately affects the Chinese community. "The only way to pay for this is moms working double shifts...and getting beat up by the predators."

Despite the strong showing of Edgewater casino employees in yellow T-shirts coming to speak and show their support, the hearings today seemed to be dominated by personal stories about family tragedies and secrets, followed by appeals for Council to consider the moral implication of approving a new gambling facility.

Vancouver resident Brad Zembie talked about a young family member who had committed suicide by immolation to protest his parents' gambling addiction, while another resident talked about a friend who was killed as a result of loan-sharking activity, leaving behind a school-age child.

Bankruptcy lawyer condemns proposed casino expansion

Bankruptcy lawyer condemns proposed casino expansion

Since the beginning of public hearings on the proposed Edgewater casino expansion, doctors and lawyers have spoken out against the dangers of another gambling facility in Vancouver.

Katherine Wellburn, a bankruptcy lawyer, explains her opposition based on years of experience seeing people go broke as a result of gambling addiction. Katherine Wellburn

I live in Kitsilano and work in Yaletown. I am a bankruptcy lawyer. I was a Registrar in bankruptcy for 8 years and I oppose the expansion of the Edgewater Casino.

I would like to speak about problem gambling and loan sharks since both are causes of bankruptcy.

There was a statistically significant increase in the number of severe problem gamblers in British Columbia of 0.5 percent from 2002 to 2008. According to the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Carsley, there are 19,000- 43,000 severe problem gamblers in British Columbia.

Dr. Carsley referred to the study from Alberta and Ontario showing that 36-39 percent of gambling revenues come from problem gamblers. That number increases to 60 percent of the revenues from slot machines, which are more addictive.

One of the indicators of a problem gambler is that the gambler lies to family members, therapists or others to conceal the extent of their involvement in gambling. My experience is that gamblers who realize that they have a problem are embarrassed or ashamed and don’t want to talk about their gambling, particularly their losses and the problems that gambling has caused to them and their families.

I asked a recovered gambling addict to come and speak to you. He was a casino employee who became addicted to gambling. He was able to overcome his addiction by quitting his job and moving to an area where there are no casinos but only after incurring hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and going bankrupt. He wants to put that period of his life behind him.

The problem gamblers I see most often are the ones who gamble away their own money, borrow more, lose that money and go bankrupt to get out of paying their gambling debts.

One indicator is whether a person is a problem gambler is whether the person goes back to gamble another day to try to win back money they have lost. This is the lure of gambling –the gambler can’t quit because the big win might be just around the corner. That would include the bank manager who lost his savings gambling and quit his job so that he could withdraw money from his retirement plan and gamble more. He lost that money too, his wife left him and he went bankrupt.


Another indicator of a problem gambler is “borrowed money or sold anything to get money to gamble.” That would also include the retired couple living with their adult son and his family. The couple put a mortgage on the family home of $375,000 to try to recoup gambling losses by gambling more. Seven months later, they had gambled all of that money away and were more than $500,000 in debt. They lost their house in a foreclosure and bankruptcy.

Another sign of a problem gambler is bailout – whether the gambler has relied on others to provide money to relieve a desperate financial situation caused by gambling. This would include the man who had borrowed money to gamble. His daughter took him to the bank, paid off the debts and begged the bank to not lend him anymore money. He still borrowed more money, gambled it away and went bankrupt. We’ve heard this story more than once – family pays off debts, only to have gambler go into debt again to gamble more.

Problem gamblers risk significant relationships because of gambling. The description fits a woman whose daughter took her to a trustee in bankruptcy to try to get her to stop gambling since the trustee would cut off her credit. That woman assaulted her daughter in the waiting room – she didn’t want to quit – she wanted to keep on gambling.

One of the criteria used to determine whether someone is a problem gambler is whether they have committed illegal acts such as forgery fraud, theft or embezzlement in order to finance gambling. This would include the woman who received $50,000 from a community group to develop a children’s program, gambled it away and went bankrupt. This raises another problem – money laundering – the trustee was unable to trace the money and confirm that it was actually lost on gambling or hidden away somewhere because there is no way to track money in casinos.

I never see casinos as creditors in a bankruptcy because casinos always get paid. They only take cash, not credit.

And people pay their loan sharks because the loan sharks resort to threats and violence to collect their debts. A gambler who owes money to a loan shark will try to borrow money from family members to pay the loan shark because they are terrified of what the loan shark will do to them.


Another way loan sharks get paid is by telling debtors how to get money by defrauding creditors, by getting credit cards from companies like the Bay, Canadian Tire, and buying items on credit as directed by the loan shark, and then going bankrupt. This is fraud, but very rarely investigated or prosecuted in BC.


Trustees and registrars in bankruptcy may insist that the bankrupt attend Gamblers Anonymous or counselling to deal with their addiction and self-exclude from the casino. Unfortunately, self-exclusion is well known to not work. There are even stories of people who had self-excluded going to the same casino the next night, although if they happen to win, the casino will not let them collect their winnings.


Your staff had statistics, showing that BC spent the lowest proportion of gambling revenue of any province on helping problem gamblers and that this figure had decreased from 2008-2009.


By contrast, the casinos are permitted to have aggressive advertising on the television radio, SkyTrain, to attract new gamblers and to encourage existing gamblers to gamble often and gamble a lot. The casinos are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This casino has buses pick people up at the SkyTrain stations and seniors’ centres. Its expansion plans include a massive increase in slot machines, the most addictive form of game in a casino.


The website of the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General lists as one of its initiatives to control problem gambling by ensuring that “the number of casinos and other gaming facilities are limited in the province”.

If not now, when?

Gambling Proponents in the Commonwealth, blinded by guilded appearances, frequently point to Canada as the success story of predatory gambling. As public hearings have been available for Paragon's proposed expansion, it's curious to note the observations: only employees are testifying in support; the Mayor, Mayor Gregor Robertson, a proponent, doesn't want to publicly discuss the human costs of Gambling Addiction.

Why?

Of all of the hearings conducted on Beacon Hill, the human costs were ignored or avoided.

Let's not discuss the suicides, the lost families, the children left without parents.

If not now, when?



Ken Lum tells of father's devastating gambling addiction, as moral issues emerge at casino hearings

Jenny Uechi Moral questions surrounding gambling surfaced repeatedly in today's public hearing on casino expansion. Councillors pressed casino proponents hard, eliciting some surprising answers from casino expansion proponents.

"Why have only the employees come out in favour of the expansion so far?" Councillor David Cadman asked an Edgewater employee. "Why have almost no patrons have come to speak in favour of an expanded casino at BC Place?"

Alan Stokes, an Edgewater employee, said there was a “public perception” was that gambling was seen as a bad thing by society and admitted that he did not discuss his job with his children.

“I have two children, 11 and 13, and I haven’t told them that I work in a casino,” he said. “It’s not because I’m embarrassed of my job,” he quickly added. “But the legal gambling age is 19, and I don’t think I need to tell them about it now.”

Stokes said that he was himself a gambler, and that while he had it under control, felt he could make more money from casinos as a casino employee.

As councillor Woodsworth's question about public perception of gambling led to a discussion about churches' long opposition to gambling, Mayor Gregor Robertson interrupted the conversation, saying the hearing was to be focused on rezoning.

The issue, however, surfaced repeatedly in different words throughout the hearing, coming to a head when Paul Smith, director of corporate social responsibility at BCLC began to speak. After his statement that BCLC "neither glamorizes nor condemns” gambling, councillor Heather Deal brought up an image of River Rock Casino’s racy “party pit" ad on her screen, showing an image of a scantily-clad young woman with Photoshopped clothes.

Deal asked if BCLC considered the ad “socially responsible,” prompting Smith to reply that the ads were created by the marketing department.

Artist Ken Lum said the casino issue prompted him to speak for the first time publicly about his father's addiction to gambling.

"I've seen first hand what happens when family members become addicted to gambling," he said, noting that he had emailed all the councillors about his personal experience with gambling. Lum then spoke of his mother's beating at the hands of his father's loansharks, and the women in the Chinese community who he said are working double shifts to work off debts "My life is fine now, but my father's still addicted to gambling...he still calls me up for money," he said, with some difficulty.

"It's largely hidden. It's a source of shame, especially in the Chinese community," Lum said, echoing speakers at the Saturday hearing who said that gambling disproportionately affects the Chinese community. "The only way to pay for this is moms working double shifts...and getting beat up by the predators."

Despite the strong showing of Edgewater casino employees in yellow T-shirts coming to speak and show their support, the hearings today seemed to be dominated by personal stories about family tragedies and secrets, followed by appeals for Council to consider the moral implication of approving a new gambling facility.

Vancouver resident Brad Zembie talked about a young family member who had committed suicide by immolation to protest his parents' gambling addiction, while Kelly Rehm talked about a friend who was killed as a result of loan-sharking activity, leaving behind a school-age child.

The Costly Retractable Roof and Paragon

Blunderdome: politics, positioning and a costly retractable roof

Sandy Garossino Anyone who wonders how government mega-projects manage to take the public to the cleaners time and time again can step right up for a front row seat at the dog and pony show put on by PavCo’s David Podmore and BC Lottery Corp’s CEO Michael Graydon over the Edgewater Casino expansion and the BC Place Stadium roof.

The good citizens of Vancouver might be forgiven for thinking that if this casino expansion goes ahead the provincial government and City of Vancouver will be awash in cash. We’ll pay for that $563 million roof in our sleep, and provide a lifetime stream of cash for the province and city. This deal, whatever its warts, will bring hundreds of millions to the province in new revenues, and $23 million to the city every year. The Deloitte report tells you so.

We’ll all be rich! Except we won’t, and PavCo and the BC Lottery Corporation are not telling you everything they know.

Over recent weeks Messrs. Podmore and Graydon made the rounds of radio talk shows , Board of Trade luncheons, editorial board meetings, and Vancouver City Council public hearings waving an October 2010 report from their Deloitte consultants which they said showed how profitable this venture would be. But there was just one catch, only spotted by those who read the fine print.

The Deloitte report didn’t project casino revenues at all. It took estimates of casino revenues supplied by Paragon Gaming, the casino developer, and projected economic impact to be expected from them. No one at Deloitte considered whether Paragon’s projections were reasonable--the report authors merely assumed them to be true for the purposes of making their own projections. When Podmore and BCLC waxed poetic about the river of cash that Deloitte says will flow into our coffers, they weren’t being straight with the public.

And they kept quiet as a mouse about one tiny detail. The Other Report

There’s another report. This is the one they don’t want you to see. It’s the real one, commissioned by BCLC in 2009. Conducted by hospitality and casino industry consultants, HLT Advisory Inc, this report arrived at its own independent assessment of the likely revenue outcomes of the casino expansion, and it makes mincemeat out of PavCo’s numbers.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone familiar with Paragon Gaming, the Las Vegas casino promoters who supplied Deloitte with its base data. Paragon has a history of making extravagant claims that don’t withstand scrutiny.

In their failed bid for a new casino license in Missouri, for instance, Paragon stated they would create revenue of $103.4 million. As internationally renowned Vancouver economist Richard Lipsey cautions, the key variable to look at is not the estimated gross figure, but the incremental, or new net revenue. This matters because a casino can take market share from other casinos, and also from the surrounding economy--a process colourfully referred to as ‘cannibalism’ in the usually grey argot of number-crunching.

For BC Lottery, any cannibalization by Edgewater of the Hastings Park and River Rock business has no impact on its bottom line, positive or negative. Since all cannibalized revenue is neutral, the only earnings that count are new dollars brought in from tourism or an expanded market. States and provinces typically order independent studies to determine a project’s genuine potential earning power.

Back in Missouri, the state was cognizant of cannibalization and commissioned an independent study to measure this new incremental number against Paragon’s projections.

They found that Paragon’s submission overstated new revenues by 476%.

When it came to reviewing Paragon Gaming’s proposal in Vancouver, the BC Lottery Corporation asked HLT Advisory Inc the same question that Missouri did. And their conclusions are close to right on the money with Missouri’s. Retired BC Supreme Court justice Ian Pitfield reviewed both the Deloitte/Paragon and HLT reports and compiled from them the net new revenue estimates of both.

According to the Deloitte/Paragon report, the annual net new revenue to BCLC will be $136 million. This number is notable for two reasons. In itself it’s a far cry from the $224 million that David Podmore and PavCo consistently cite as revenue to the province. But even worse,

it is 425% higher than the conclusions of the HLT report. According to the HLT data, the highest potential new annual revenue to BC Lottery Corporation from this massive casino expansion, after paying the City of Vancouver’s share, will be $32 million.

Thirty-two million dollars to the provincial treasury--against PavCo’s assurances of $224 million annually. This means new revenue to the City of only $3.5 million. About $6 per Vancouverite. A coffee and a sandwich, basically. That’s a startling variance.

That Roof

But wait, there’s more. This thing is not a stand-alone deal--there’s a retractable roof attached to it. The public will pay almost $600 million for the roof on BC Place, and according to David Podmore, the casino revenue was necessary to pay for it. But if HLT is correct, the casino revenue will barely cover the interest payments on the debt, assuming the cost of the roof stays constant at $563 million.

All decisions were made and construction started before City Council gave its approval to the casino. Making things worse, if PavCo had known the casino would not pass City Council, it’s doubtful a retractable roof would have been built at all.

Back in 2009 word came out of the provincial government that cabinet was losing enthusiasm for a retractable roof, and showing more interest in the much less expensive option of replacing the old air supported roof with a new one.

Enter Rick Turner, Paragon Gaming’s man for all seasons. Turner has quite the resume. He is a director and part owner of Paragon Gaming, a major BC Liberal Party donor, and the former chair of the BC Lottery Corporation. He purchased his interest in Paragon Gaming while he was Chair of the Lottery Corporation. He did resign his position with the Lottery Corporation prior to Paragon purchasing the then failed Edgewater Casino. When Turner got wind of cabinet’s waning enthusiasm for a retractable roof, he picked up the phone and called Kevin Krueger, the minister responsible. The bottom line of that conversation was that if PavCo didn’t put a retractable roof on the stadium, Paragon would walk.

It’s impossible to say whether this call made all the difference, but PavCo did opt for the more costly retractable roof. We don’t know the cost of opening and closing the roof--which cannot be done in the rain. It’s worth noting that the stadiums only sports team tenants, the BC Lions and Whitecaps, play a total of 14 home games during the summer season.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Questions must be asked, including the following: Why was construction on an expensive stadium roof option commenced before all necessary approvals for the casino were obtained from the City of Vancouver?

Why has the public, the media, and the City been kept in the dark about the existence of a report disclosing the frailty of the business case on which this entire enterprise relies?

Why was there no reference to the HLT findings in the Deloitte/Paragon report, which came out a year later? Why have David Podmore and Warren Buckley continued to cite the results of the Deloitte/Paragon report, when they know it is seriously compromised?

Why is the Vancouver Director of Planning citing figures from the Deloitte/Paragon report in his projections of revenues to the City, when BCLC does not support those numbers, even in its own presentation?

A handful of people make decisions that determine, to an extraordinary degree, massive outlays of public spending which not only places an onerous debt load on the public, but limits options for the future, and can change the course of the future for all of us.

Public attention focused on the casino expansion hearings have forced much of that decision making process into the open for all to see.

Public servants are not only responsible for what they say, but for what they do not say. What has PavCo and BC Lottery Corporation have not disclosed speaks volumes about just how government projects go wrong.

Eighteen law enforcement officers oppose casino expansion

Eighteen law enforcement officers oppose casino expansion
Linda Solomon

Corruption, addiction, petty crime. Entrenched gangs. Organized crime. More of all of the above. This concerns a group of eighteen law enforcement officers from across Canada, who have written the mayor and city councillors, asking them to vote against the proposed casino expansion at B.C. Place. The letter comes two days before the public hearings on the casino at City Hall. During the hearings, scheduled on April 9 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on April 10 from 1 a.m. to 6 p.m., city councillors will consider zoning and bylaw amendments for 777 Pacific Boulevard and PAVCO's application to develop with Paragon Gaming a hotel-entertainment-casino complex. This will be the third round of a public process in which hundreds of people have registered to voice their opinions to city council.

Re: Proposed Relocation and Expansion of Edgewater Casino

We, the undersigned, are members or retired members of the VPD, RCMP and other law enforcement agencies operating in BC, Canada, and internationally. We all have decades of experience in law enforcement, and many of us have particular experience or undercover expertise with organized crime, gangs, and money-laundering. Organized crime and gang activity have become deeply entrenched in the Metro Vancouver environment and represent an ongoing threat to public safety.

We urge this Council not to approve the proposed expansion and relocation of the Edgewater Casino. Casinos and racetracks are well known for their vulnerability to the activities of gangs and organized crime--money-laundering, loan-sharking, extortion, and prostitution, as well as for the vulnerability to public corruption which they engender.

That organized criminals and gang members frequent BC casinos, and easily use them to launder money, or use them as sites for the operation of loan-sharking and prostitution, is well known. Policing in casinos and racetracks requires a robust commitment to real enforcement of the law--a commitment that is plainly lacking at the present time.

Further, we are very concerned about the impact of increased gambling on our addict population, or those at risk of entering it. We note the 2009 report of the B.C. Medical Association, Stepping Forward, which found that the incidence of severe gambling addiction has more than doubled between 2002-2009, and that BC now has nearly as many severe gambling addicts as it does drug addicts. Additionally, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health has recently released a study showing that 29,000 Ontario teens in grades 7-12 now show signs of problem gambling.

It is no coincidence that these youths are also significantly more likely than their peers to engage in gang violence, carry a handgun, and deal drugs other than cannabis. Tragically, they are also 18 times more likely than their peers to have attempted suicide in the past year.

Locating a major casino in a major regional sporting complex sends a poor message to our youth.

Addiction is a blight on society. It has a close and mutually reinforcing relationship with crime. It promotes additional offenses such as property crimes and drug-dealing, as victims seek the money to feed their habits--whatever those may be. There is no way to measure the social cost of this suffering on victims and their families, but the health, policing, criminal justice, social services and corrections systems as well as charitable service agencies all bear the brunt of the increased pressures brought about by this public problem.

Securing new sources of government funds from addicts to pay for their increased demand on government services is not wise public policy.

Without significant changes in the policing protocol, and the adoption of rigorous crime control standards for casinos such as those employed by the Ontario Provincial Police, we are in no position to deal with the increased criminal activity that will necessarily attend the development of a massive casino on the scale proposed here.

As citizens and public servants, we owe a duty of care to society’s weakest and most vulnerable, to our youth and seniors, and to the public at large. As police officers, we have seen the ravages of addiction and of gang and organized crime first-hand. The connection is closer than most members of the public may imagine.

We urge Vancouver City Council to vote against the expansion and relocation of the Edgewater Casino.

Yours truly,

Assistant Commissioner Earl Moulton - RCMP Commanding Officer Saskatchewan (Ret'd)
Chair of Vision Quest Recovery Society (Addiction recovery services, BC)
Deputy Chief Constable Peter Ditchfield, Organized Crime Agency of BC (Ret’d) Detective Ian Pope, Organized Crime Agency of B.C., formerly VPD, (Ret’d)
Sergeant Bob Cooper, VPD Asian Organized Crime Section, (Ret’d)
Sergeant Ivan Chu, New Westminster Police Service (Ret’d)
Superintendent GlennWoods, Officer in Charge of Behavioural Sciences, RCMP (Ret'd) Staff Sergeant Otto Bertagnolli, RCMP Drug Section (Ret’d)
Staff Sergeant Scot Filer, RCMP Major Crime Section (Ret’d)
Staff Sergeant Peter Montague, RCMP Commercial Crime Section (Ret’d)
Corporal Howard Parks, RCMP Money Laundering Expert (Ret’d)
Corporal Chris Mathers, RCMP Money Laundering Expert (Ret’d)
Sergeant Pat Powell, RCMP Threat Assessment Expert (Ret’d)
Inspector Keith Davidson, RCMP Major Crime Section (Ret’d)
Staff Sergeant Bob Hartl, RCMP Security Engineering Expert (Ret’d)
Dr Teal Maedel, RCMP Operational Psychologist (Major Crime Section)
Staff Sergeant Robert Stenhouse, RCMP Drug Section (Ret'd)
Staff Sergeant Sid Slater, RCMP Major Crime Section (Ret'd)
Staff Sergeant Tibi Roman, RCMP Border Integrity (serving)

Paragon Opposition Grows

Former Vancouver Health Officer Joins Casino Proposal Opposition
Submitted by Ria Patel

John Blatherwick, a former Chief Medical Health Officer who retired in 2007, has joined ranks with a coalition hoping to get the city council to reject a Las Vegas company's proposal to build a mega casino adjacent to BC Place Stadium.

Blatherwick posting a statement on the Vancouver website, yesterday, says a large casino downtown will only serve to create more gambling addicts.

He writes, easy availability of a product makes addiction a problem, and a large addiction centre next to the sports centres (BC Place and Rogers Arena) frequented mainly by young males, will ensure a fresh supply of new addicts for the casinos.

Only a month ago, Dr. John Carsley of Vancouver Coastal Health at a public hearing had also urged the council to reject Paragon's proposal, basing his recommendation on research reviewed as to whether expanding gambling creates more problem gamblers.

Retired Vancouver Police Department Sgt. Bob Cooper, who was a homicide investigator and member of the Asian Organized Crime Section has also joined the coalition against the proposal. He says gambling has effects on individuals and society in general, including murders, suicides, extortions and much more.

195,000 Gambling Addicts

Thousands of British Columbians Suffer from Severe Gambling Addiction
Submitted by Annabel Tautou

If one goes by the figures available for British Columbia; it won’t be hard to notice, but people residing in BC seem to have a gambling problem. Apparently, 43,000 people living in the province happen to suffer from severe gambling addictions.

Addressing the Vancouver city council on Monday, Dr. John Crasley further informed that 152,000 British Columbians had a moderate gambling addiction. He further went on to say that it was doubtable to ascertain whether a massive casino expansion will further aggravate the problem or won’t have any negative effect on the gambling habits of people.

He furthers said that such an approximate can only be made if further research was carried out on the effects of gambling.

Dr. Crasley was accompanied with the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Patricia Dally at the meeting.

The comments made by Crasley were a part of a public hearing that has reached into its third day and basically revolves around the question whether the Edgewater Casino in downtown Vancouver should be given the green signal for further expansion. According to the information available, the casino is looking to expand its operations and turn the current site into a casino complex and $500 million hotel.

Unlike Beacon Hill

Reading the article below, it was striking that an elected official would waiver in his support for the phony claims of "Jobs, Revenue, Jobs, Revenue" of Predatory Gambling, unlike Beacon Hill that prides itself on meeting behind closed doors, allowing their egos to be stroked, absorbing phony numbers and conducting sham hearings.

Remember that we have a Massachusetts Senate President who prides herself on never reading anything "ANTI" and a House Speaker who doles out chairmenships and offices based on obedience.

Vancouver Mayor on Timing of Council Decision on Casino
Vancouver/CKNW(AM980)

Vancouver’s Mayor says council will make a decision on the proposed mega casino before the next civic election.

Gregor Robertson says while they still have many people to listen to at their next public hearing it's better for everyone involved to have a decision made in the next few months. With gambling addiction concerns being raised Robertson says council needs to keep an open mind

"It’s important and quite significant that we're hearing on a public health front that there are real concerns that’s unusual at council"

He says council will meet with Vancouver Coastal Health next Monday to gather more information.

Vancouver health officials say Edgewater Casino project should be turned down

Vancouver health officials say Edgewater Casino project should be turned down
By Jeff Lee

It seems the proposed Edgewater Casino expansion in Vancouver may just have run into a brick wall. And it came not at the hands of the well-organized anti-casino group or from a foot-shooting accident by the proponents, Paragon Gaming, the B.C. Lottery Corporation or the B.C. Pavilion Corp.

Instead, it came from one of Vancouver Coastal Health Authority's medical health officers, Dr. John Carsley, who patiently waited on a growing list of speakers to tell city council that in the authority's considered opinion, the expansion should not go ahead.

Now, you would usually find this kind of statement inside of the staff report on the proposed expansion. Or, at least coming at the front of a public hearing as agencies with vested interests weigh in on the merits of an issue.

But here was Carsley, No. 34 on a list of (now) 182 speakers, coming up to the podium as the last speaker of the night Tuesday and explaining why the VCHA believes a casino expansion would be a bad idea at this time.

It all revolves around competing and conflicting academic theories about the danger and prevalence of gambling addiction. You can read my story here in which Carsley explains this, but suffice to say that his delivery was, in the words of a number of people, "a game-changer".

It's hard to go against a doctor or a health official who says things like "don't do this because the risks are too high."

Sort of like when your doctor says "Jeff, you're a candidate for a heart attack. Lose weight, drop the sodium and get more exercise." If I ignore him and am laid out with chest lightening, I've no one to blame but myself. If the city ignores the health authority and rates of addiction rise and more families are harmed, could the public not say to them "you were told not to do this and you ignored the advice and now we've got worse problems."

Council immediately understood the gravity of his concerns, and have folded him into the public hearing process as an expert witness rather than as a public speaker. He'll be back to answer questions at the start of the next night of hearings, Monday at 6:30 p.m.

It will be fascinating to see how all this now plays out.

Battling growing gambling addiction in Canada

Battling growing gambling addiction in Canada
By Douglas Todd

Gambling addiction is front-page news in The Vancouver Sun today, after Jeff Lee and Jonathan Fowlie wrote about the way senior health officials are opposing a giant expansion of the city's Edgewater Casino into B.C. Place.

I wrote about some of the effective ways other countries are dealing with gambling addiction in a January column. It's a major ethical and social challenge.

It's fascinating to see Dr. Perry Kendall affirm that the recommendations of Dr. John Carsley, a VCHA medical officer, are in line with concerns being expressed by other Canadian health officials that problem gambling is a serious national disease.

On Tuesday night, Carsley stunned a public hearing on the casino issue by saying the expansion has prompted the health authority to weigh in under new Public Health Act rules that require it to consult with municipalities on issues of public health.

Sometimes problem gamblers need help, including from legislators, in dealing with their temptations.

Lottery vulnerable to abuse

If elected, Horgan to tackle online gaming
B.C. Lottery vulnerable to abuse, he says
By Ian Austin, The Province


B.C. NDP MLA John Horgan says he would unplug online gaming if elected B.C. premier.

Horgan, one of five candidates for the party leadership, said the B.C. Lottery Corporation's online gaming is particularly vulnerable to money laundering, fraud, and related crimes.

"British Columbia needs to focus on operating our current gaming activities in compliance with the law, and restoring trust with local communities, charities and non-profit organizations who have been left behind in the massive Liberal gaming expansion of the last 10 years," said Horgan.

"I will also immediately restore $30 million of funding to B.C.'s charities and non-profits."

The issue of gambling has returned to the forefront in Vancouver, where Paragon Gaming is applying to build a $500-million casino adjacent to B.C. Place Stadium.

An ongoing public hearing has drawn hundreds of outspoken residents to debate whether to permit the casino, which would be the largest in Western Canada.

Horgan, who if elected party leader would still need to defeat Christy Clark for the premiership, said he would order an independent review of the proposed new Vancouver casino.

Casino will not be 'forced' on Vancouver

Casino will not be 'forced' on Vancouver

The minister responsible for gambling says the B.C. government will not force a big new casino on the city of Vancouver.

If city council votes against the proposal that would adjoin BC Place Stadium, the BC Lottery Corporation may look elsewhere to locate the project, Public Safety Minister Rich Coleman said Thursday.

"The bottom line is we have never forced any local government to take any casino," Coleman said. "Our position has always been that they ask us for it."

Opponents have been lining up at public hearings at city hall this week to warn of crime, gambling addiction and a host of social problems.

The Scam and Myths of Slot Barns: Worth reading

After a few years of reading the Myths and Scams of the Casino Vultures who run around repeating drivel that makes no sense and lacks factual substantiation, the article about Vancouver below grabbed my attention. [The article itself is worth viewing for the graphic cartoon that so clearly represents the false promises.]

In case you haven't been following it, the Head of Paragon has been proclaiming salvation from his pulpit and assuring those who raise their legitimate concerns about CRIME that 'casinos are safer than malls.' That rang a bell of familiarity because it closely resembles the inaccurate statements made by Massachusetts Senator Marc Pacheco on the Senate floor defending that grossly flawed legislation before him, that was blogged about here: Race to the bottom....

Grinols presented a long list of crimes, pathologies and social problems in which Nevada is first or among the leaders in the nation, including first in suicide (double the national average), divorce, gambling addictions, child-abuse deaths and per capita bankruptcy, to cite a few. He said crime associated with gambling is not explained merely by the fact that it draws large numbers of people.

His research compared crime at Las Vegas to that at high-tourist destinations not associated with gambling – Branson, Mo.; and the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.

Las Vegas’ crime rate is 1,040 percent higher than Branson’s and 15.7 times higher than Bloomington’s, Grinols reported, although both destinations draw far more visitors per resident than does Las Vegas.

A similar pattern is found when comparing crime rates at large tourist destinations in the National Park System to Las Vegas.



These are the links included in the article that are worth reading in their entirety:
CASINO BANKRUPTCIES
Pete McMartin: Huge gaming-grant cuts don’t apply to Lottery Corp. offices
BCLC guts grants to charities and non-profits while spending $3 million on furniture and decorating
Gaming board chairman says more casino bankruptcies expected (Las Vegas Sun)
Edgewater Casino Deal Approved



Is PAVCO's proposed mega-casino at B.C. Place too big to fail? No!!!!
Sean Bickerton

Our paragon of a premier and Paragon Gaming, a premier casino peddler, have decided to give Vancouver a great big gift!

If approved by City Council after public hearings this Thursday night, they will insert that huge gift-wrapped package right up Vancouver’s False Creek, depositing it right into the centre of our city.

It’s huge! It will be the largest casino in Western Canada, featuring more than 1,500 slot machines!

It will create jobs, we’re told! And provide buckets full of cash to local and provincial coffers!

Did I mention the jobs? Big jobs! Hundreds of them! Right here in the centre of our city! And in case I didn’t mention it, buckets full of cash for local and provincial coffers. What’s not to love?

Now, they say you should never look a gift horse in the mouth. So let’s just ignore the fact that the American company building this mega-casino in our city’s heart is not required to provide any local community amenities in violation of Vancouver development policy.

And we’ll ignore for now concerns about 25,000 of our fellow residents with compulsive gambling addictions. Next to a huge shiny new casino, those old bromides about being our brother’s keeper seem so old-fashioned, don’t they?

Did I mention the jobs?

Tourism Vancouver and the city’s business leaders have told us to ignore those small petty concerns and get with the program. “Jobs!” they shout. “Tourists!” they exclaim. “The economy!” they exhort us to care about more.

And yet … and yet … we’ve recently learned that nearly half the casinos in America were in bankruptcy or receivership by the beginning of last year. And more are to follow according to the chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board who reported just last Tuesday that “he expects more casino bankruptcies in the stagnant economy.”

Foxwoods casino, the largest casino near New York city, which I’m familiar with, owed $1.6 Billion to local governments, employees and small area businesses when it went into receivership at the end of 2009.

The peddlers would argue that the reason most casinos are under water financially is because of the failure of the economy in 2008. But the Edgewater Casino here in Vancouver has already gone into bankruptcy once, not after the financial meltdown, but back in 2003. And Trump’s ill-fated casinos in Atlantic City have gone under repeatedly, twice before the meltdown, a not-uncomon occurrence in this industry.

Casinos are simply not sustainable. Owners move in, harvest as much cash as possible from the local area, earning 35% of their take from problem gamblers, then declare bankruptcy and move on. It has happened time and again across the United States.

Can you imagine the financial impact if Paragon’s proposed mega-casino goes under again when it’s triple the size?

As jobs seem to be one of their key arguments, please consider for a second the financial impact on the city if we suddenly lose the 1,700 jobs they claim they’ll create instead of the 600 now involved.

Just imagine for a second the millions in dollars of debt that local businesses and governments will be left holding. At what point does this casino become too big to fail, requiring further government bailouts to protect those all-important jobs?

BC Lottery Corporation, by which I mean the taxpayers of this province, just spent millions on handmade custom furniture for their gleaming new offices in downtown Vancouver at a time we have 500 homeless people sleeping on our city’s streets. Clearly to them, taxpayers’ money is no object.

In fact they’ve already handed out millions and millions to private casino operators over the past ten years. Are we going to be on the hook if this one goes under too?

We learned very well what “Too Big To Fail” meant in the fall of 2009, when taxpayer dollars were used to bail out bankers who should have been arrested instead on charges of reckless endangerment of the free market.

With all due respect to the Board of Trade, Tourism Vancouver, and the Downtown Business Improvement District, Vancouver cannot afford this kind of risky gamble.

If you care about the future of our city, about our economy, about sustainable jobs, about the livability of our downtown core, please write mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca and let them know the only economically, morally and socially responsible vote on February 17 is “No!” to casino expansion in Vancouver.