Welcome to Gambling Watch Global Community Blog,
a source for latest news, developments and reputable documentation and research on gambling. You'll find many helpful resources and links for anti-gambling advocates.
3/1/2010: Read — further to suicide !
Lone bureaucrat charged in N.L. spending scandal blames gambling addiction
By Sue Bailey (CP) – 18 hours ago
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hjMZ1-LPtjRr_abgd-ib-9378Tig
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Kickbacks, bogus invoices and a company used to filter bribes: this was how the ex-financial director of the Newfoundland and Labrador legislature fed a $500-a-day slot machine habit.
Bill Murray pleaded guilty Tuesday for his linchpin role in a ripoff scheme that rattled the house of assembly and redefined fiscal oversight in the province.
The only public servant charged in the political spending scandal pleaded guilty to fraud and three counts of taking bribes in exchange for his influence from 1998 to 2006.
“Not a day goes by that I don’t regret the bad choices and decisions I have made,” Murray, 55, told Justice Robert Fowler in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador.
2/23/2010: Newfoundland VLT’s, time for a class action lawsuit
Keith Piercey of Corner Brook said Thursday that he’s determined to fight harder after the province’s finance minister refused to ban the machines.
At a pre-budget consultation Wednesday, Finance Minister Tom Marshall said the provincial government needs VLT revenues to pay for social programs. In 2008, the province collected $65 million form the machines.
“They’re just as addicted as the gambling addicts from the sound of it,” said Piercey, whose daughter committed suicide after running up a $100,000 gambling debt.
“The money the government gets comes from the misfortune of others. Sixty-five million dollars took in from VLTs, that’s $65 million that people lost.”
Susan Piercey died seven years ago after a long struggle with her addiction to VLT gambling.
“She tried to do something about it but as she put it she just couldn’t get the monkey off her back,” said Piercey Thursday.
Piercey said VLTs are designed to cause misfortune. “The bottom line for those machines is that they’re programmed by a human being, so they win and you don’t. ”
Piercey is trying to start a class action lawsuit to force the province to shut down the machines.
From the CBC
There are a lot of comments under this CBC story. Most people do not know and understand addiction, conditioned by advertising to blame the addict. The incredible price society and families pay is abstract.
Administrator2/21/2010: A letter to The Montreal Gazette
It is very interesting to see public health in Quebec getting interested in gambling matters.
In Ontario it seems that if one cannot say anything positive about gambling, called gaming here, then one stays mute. The largest advertisers in Ontario, no doubt would be gambling and alcohol, in all the media.
As a retired community Quebec pharmacist I am fully aware of the social costs of these two so called entertainments.
What I cannot understand is a society that subverts tax paying citizens into service needy gambling addicts.
Especially Quebec that needs all the tax dollars they can get.
In Ontario, and for all gambling Canada, the crown corporations will do their utmost to settle a case out of court rather that a court decision on gambling addiction especially after the DSM statement this week. This idea of advocating responsible gaming needs a rethink…
In my nearly 50 years of community work, I don’t recall many responsible addicts. CAMH (Center for addiction Mental Health) in Ontario wrote the Minister of Health in Ontario in 2004, very concerned about nearly 500,000 gambling addicts. I am not aware of a reply.
How many of them are tax paying citizens?
Are you aware the reported suicide rate for this group?
A sad too often the only way out.
Illegal sites was also an excuse for Ontario to get into the business.
But at least these illegal sites won’t advertise free bus transportation to a gambling site with a meal coupon or starter chips.
Good work Catherine Solyom, keep it up.
Gambling and alcohol addiction is today’s slavery.
It is a sad government policy to raise money using addiction, what about duty of care ?
2/20/2010: Quebec ponders online gambling
With the government’s blessing, Loto-Québec announced Feb. 3 that it will set up a website by Christmas to counter the 2,000 illegal gambling sites that already exist - and to put about $50 million a year into public coffers.
But the public health directors, echoed by the federation of general practitioners and the association of addiction rehabilitation centres - those who see the consequences of excessive gambling first-hand - called the plan a recipe for disaster.
“Should we really be accelerating the development of online gambling or slowing it down?” asked Richard Lessard, director of Montreal’s public health department. He called for a one-year moratorium on any state-sponsored Internet gambling sites.
“There are not just economic benefits to be had, but negative impacts that have not been properly accounted for. We are convinced that by creating a legal secure site, we will create new players. You don’t have to be a marketing expert to see that.”
In the next year, the doctors want the government to set up a committee of experts - with some from the ministries of justice and public safety - to study the question of online gambling and find measures to mitigate its negative impacts.
They have reason to be “extremely worried,” they said.
According to the Institut national de santé publique, excessive gamblers make up almost five per cent of the Canadian population.
2/20/2010: GWG owner upcoming presentation
Bill Clark will be speaking about gambling and addiction at a United Church of Canada men’s retreat in April.
“As One That Serves” has a blog, details of the conference are available here.
More to come as the weekend approaches.
2/20/2010: Do self-exclusion programs work? Ask an addicted gambler
CBC Ottawa has a story of an addicted gambler who went to great lengths to manage her addiction, including signing into a voluntary exclusion program at Rideau Carleton Raceway. Despite her efforts, staff didn’t follow through.
She said she had her picture taken and signed an agreement promising to stay away from the site.
“I recall them telling me that they would, if they found me on the premises, have me arrested for trespassing,” she said.
Despite the agreement, the woman said she was able to return to the site several times to gamble.
“I was a little scared of Rideau Carleton because of what they said, but I thought well, I’ll take my chances,” she said. “So I went in, and nobody stopped me.”
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation runs the slots at the raceway. Paul Pellizzari, a spokesman for the OLG, said the self-exclusion policy isn’t a “policing” program.
“The most important aspect of detection is that it serves as a disincentive,” Pellizzari said. “Self-excluded players have told us, ‘If I know that there’s some kind of consequence of returning to the site, then it will keep me away.’”
Pellizzari said OLG is testing a facial recognition technology at the Woodbine Slots in Toronto. He said cameras at the entrance instantly match faces to photos of people who have chosen to be banned from the facility.
Pellizzari said OLG has yet to make a decision on whether the system will be installed at gambling facilities across the province.
No reader comments yet - add yours See related articles: Addiction and Recovery, General, Wisdom and its absence 
Bill Clark2/20/2010: OLG says they can’t determine problem gamblers
As the The Rideau Carleton Raceway celebrated 10 years of slot machines, many people question the wisdom of government gambling generated revenue. CBC Ottawa:
Ottawa’s slot casino has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars for taxpayers since it opened in 2000. Nevertheless, a decade later, there is still controversy about whether it ultimately harms or benefits the community.
On Feb. 16, 2000, The Rideau Carleton Raceway unveiled a slot casino with 1,250 machines where gamblers could try their luck. The games like “Rich Little Piggies” and “Treasures of the Acropolis” drew such massive crowds on opening day that at one point no more people could be let in. Prior to that, the raceway, which opened in 1962 on Albion Road in the city’s south end, had offered only horse racing and betting.
In the past decade, at least 15 million people have come to play the slots in Ottawa. In the 2008-09 fiscal year alone, the machines took into more than $140 million, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. reported.
The corporation is a provincial agency that operates and manages lotteries, casinos and slots facilities at horse racing tracks in Ontario.
About $3 million of the Rideau Carleton Raceway’s slot revenues went to the City of Ottawa last year.
About 36% of gambling revenue comes from addicted gamblers according to the 2004 Responsible Gambling Council study. The OLG questions the validity of the stats.
OLG spokesman Paul Pellizzari said the company has no way of determining who is a problem gambler.
“We are retrainining our staff to help players empower themselves so they can be able to play in a responsible way,” he added.
OLG is now testing technology to allow players to voluntarily set limits on the time they play, Pellizzari said.
The OLG needs all the money they can get. Obviously, if those generous addicted gamblers did not contribute that base of nearly 5 billion dollars the OLG could not exist. Time Magazine published these numbers in 1997. Strange that OLG not only recognise good customers, but would greet them with gifts, loans, complimentary meals, limo service, trips, bump them up on on the frequent loser clubs, and they do have a system.
Maybe the problem is, that the system they use to reward losers is the the addiction reward system.
The top 10 at Woodbine lost an avercage close to 1/2 a million $$ per year, with average visits nearly 4 times a week gambling on those delicious slots. Some one needs to get real.
If Toronto drops 25 million $$ per week on gambling, and does not even get 15 million back from OLG, one might call it financial rape.
1/7/2010:
Que. in gambling addiction treatment deal: report
By CBC News January 7, 2010
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=NjQzMzI3Nw%3D%3D
A settlement may be in the works between the Quebec government and Loto-Québec in a legal battle over the cost of treating people with gambling addiction, according to a published report.
A settlement may be in the works between the Quebec government and Loto-Québec in a legal battle over the cost of treating people with gambling addiction, according to a published report.
La Presse said Thursday that the provincial government has agreed to reimburse treatment costs for problem gamblers between 1994 and 2002.
The agreement reportedly settles the class action lawsuit brought against Loto-Québec in 2001.
The case went to court in 2008 and was supposed to wrap up in the next couple of months.
The lawsuit sought about $1 billion in damages.
The settlement will reportedly cost the provincial government around $50 million
No reader comments yet - add yours See related articles: Addiction and Recovery, Canada, Litigation 
bill clark1/7/2010:
Que. in gambling addiction treatment deal: report
By CBC News January 7, 2010
http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=NjQzMzI3Nw%3D%3D
A settlement may be in the works between the Quebec government and Loto-Québec in a legal battle over the cost of treating people with gambling addiction, according to a published report.
A settlement may be in the works between the Quebec government and Loto-Québec in a legal battle over the cost of treating people with gambling addiction, according to a published report.
La Presse said Thursday that the provincial government has agreed to reimburse treatment costs for problem gamblers between 1994 and 2002.
The agreement reportedly settles the class action lawsuit brought against Loto-Québec in 2001.
The case went to court in 2008 and was supposed to wrap up in the next couple of months.
The lawsuit sought about $1 billion in damages.
The settlement will reportedly cost the provincial government around $50 million
No reader comments yet - add yours See related articles: Addiction and Recovery, Canada, Litigation
bill clark12/23/2009: OLG up for sale?
Betting is on the OLG to be shopped around
“Liberals will sign deal with banks to access value of lottery agency.”
The Liberal government will sign a $200,000 deal with two investment banks within days to do “preliminary research” on privatizing all or part of the problem-prone Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, the Star has learned.
While Bay Street has been tantalized by millions in lucrative commissions from the possible sale of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Hydro One, and Ontario Power Generation, informed sources say the provincial lottery monopoly is the main public asset in play.
Premier Dalton McGuinty is “displeased” by the performance of the troubled gambling agency, which makes it an easy target for sale to alleviate some of the province’s record $24.7 billion deficit.
I find it interesting, the words price or cost are not in the poli-speak. Value is a strange word to use.
We hear conflicting numbers from OLG.
They are always swift to publish how much many dollars they give back to a community, how much they buy, how many jobs are created. We never hear how many dollars leave the community, we don’t hear how many jobs are lost to support new gambling jobs. We continuously hear “only 1 % of people are affected.”
Yes 1 % is a small number but one percent of Ontarians could well be 120,000 souls, and in this we are even told in 2004, by the head of CAMH, tells the minister of Health that the number is closer to 500 thousand souls in trouble with gambling addiction.
That is a large number, and 5 to ten extra people affected for each gambling addict.
The OLG message is to sell the idea that “less is more”. The more money leaves a community, the better off we are. And a lot of money leaves a community. A lot of money leaves the country.
Well, the other item to flog is the LCBO. I call it the “Liquor Promotion Board of Ontario”.
In my 40 plus years in community pharmacy, I have to ask if a more destructive poison exists.
4 % of all deaths are alchohol related. CAMH numbers.
A direct cost of close to 500 dollars for every soul in Ontario, not to mention the serious side effects.
We won’t even mention tobacco addiction. So we are left with alcohol addiction, and gambling addiction, we are selling off the very products that contribute the most costs to what we call a health system.
OUR own crown corporations, convert tax paying citizens into service needy addicts. Alcohol and gambling may well be two 2 worst products for addiction and fatal consequences, and the most heavily advertised and promoted. Can any society really afford this insanity ? Can we afford to lose complete control, or will we really sit down and look at value, costs, consequences, and the destructive direction we are heading. Somewhere, duty of care ?
The lottery corporation contributes $1.8 billion a year to provincial coffers and has a book value of $3.4 billion – including $2.4 billion in property, facilities and equipment.
…”If all we want is a revenue stream (from gambling proceeds) then why can’t we let someone else run it? It’s painfully evident that the model created 10 to 15 years ago has had its day,” said a Liberal.
