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5/6/2008: Gambling Watch Canada Network Newsletter

Canada’s Gambling Watch Network’s weekly e-mailed Newsletter

Volume 9 Issue 028 CWE May 05, 2008

Canada

Lively London club bidding to keep game going is an article in The London Free Press of 5/2/08 dealing with a Bridge Club that is shrinking because its elderly members are dying. During the 1940s, 44% of American households had at least one active bridge player, the article says. These days, of course, the game has been supplanted by a dizzying array of other diversions, including the Internet (with its gambling possibilities and poker) says the article. As far is this writer knows the Bridge Game never involved gambling.

Addiction

In how Missouri is leading the way to prevent gambling addiction, an article in the 4/30/08 Casino Watch Focus, we read that its $500 loss limit is not the only thing that helps curb gambling addiction; Missouri is also leading a unique coalition of colleges in an effort to alleviate and educate problem and pathological gamblers.

The 5/2/08 Ottawa Citizen, in Kicking the habit hard tells how a cocaine addict was helped by the Ottawa Mission’s LifeHouse program to ‘graft onto a new set of values’ and to reach his graduation.

Youth

‘Canadians spend up to $400M a year; Users access computer servers based in foreign jurisdictions or on Mohawk reserve’ is the opening line of an item in The 4/30/08 Montreal Gazette with the heading Youths prefer Web betting that calls young adults a key growth sector for Canada’s gambling industry. We quote:

“Citing a national survey, pollster Allan Gregg told the 2008 Canadian Gaming Summit under way in Montreal that one- third of Canadians say they are gambling less than they did three years ago, while those under 35 years of age are more likely to be gambling more”.

Horse-racing

An item in The 5/1/08 Niagara Falls Review shows once again that horseracing – despite its reliance on deceptive/addictive slot machines – is a dying hobby. Here’s a quote from its ‘Fort Erie ready for 2008 live racing season’ item:

“There are 300 or 400 horses less so you take it from there,” said Massolin, who runs a racing supply shop out of a temporary building in the centre of the track’s backstretch. Back in the track’s most healthy days four or five years ago, there was a full backstretch of nearly 1,000 horses with another 200 stabled in the overflow area across Thompson Road.”

(archived - admin)

In a 5/2/08 AP item the Michigan Live LLC reports that horseracing interests have sued the state over its gambling laws. We quote:

The lawsuit, filed in USA District Court, claims casinos and state lotteries are killing the horse racing industry, and state restrictions on video lottery terminals violate the U.S. Constitution”. Their lawyer claims “Without legislative relief, you will see the end of horse racing in Michigan within three years.”

Going against the odds is The 5/1/08 Globe and Mail’s title of an 8-page article starting with the question: “Is Frank Stronach gambling his empire in an effort to revitalize America’s struggling horse-racing industry?”
It’s impossible to do justice to this 8-page item in our as short as possible Newsletter, but we suggest that those interested in horseracing read this piece that describes how Mr. Stronach intends to revive this dying hobby.

British Columbia

Help for problem gamblers, an article in The 4/29/08 Vancouver Sun, contains a paragraph that says:

“The province has posted contracts for eight additional responsible gambling information officers, and one supervisor, an amount that would mean each casino in the province has a dedicated officer”.

We wonder: does the term “responsible gambling” mean that victims of the government’s still expanding gambling mean that gamblers will not be told that quitting gambling is their only really sound decision?

On 2/5/08 in Problem gambling neglected, The Times Colonist makes clear that it shares our concern.

“The premise is dubious. Thousands of people in British Columbia are gambling addicts. Trying to convince many of them to “play responsibly” is about as effective as encouraging an alcoholic to drink responsibly. Unfortunately, the information officers, while trained to recognize distressed gamblers, won’t intervene to prevent them from going broke”.

City gives early nod to slots, an item in The 4/30/08 Surrey Leader, writes that Surrey’s city council has given early endorsement to a plan that would see up to 150 slot machines at the Newton bingo hall. I wonder: Isn’t bingo enough to make people problem gamblers? Do the councillors not know that slots are deceptive and highly addictive?

Two items in The 5/2/08 Surrey North Delta Leader deal with gambling expansion. One, written by Kevin Diakiw is titled Surrey’s shifting policy on slots, and it writes:

Surrey staff are reviewing the city’s gaming policy in light of a $25-million proposal for a Community Gaming Centre for Newton’s bingo hall, a plan that would include the installation of 150 slot machines. The existing gaming policy expressly prohibits slots outside destination entertainment areas.

The other, written by Jeff Nagel, says:

The conversion of the halls into so-called community gaming centres with slots is a key strategy of the B.C. Lotteries Corporation (BCLC) to replace declining bingo revenue and ring up higher gambling profits for the province.

When we look at the 4/30 item telling that the City gives early nod to slots we have little hope that the slots will stay away.

Alberta

In Housing for struggling addicts The 5/2/08 Edmonton Journal says that many millions of dollars will be spent for this purpose. The article has no word about addicts to gambling.

Saskatchewan

“Regina women who gamble that Lady Luck will help them recoup their losses at slot machines and VLTs have lost millions of dollars, and in some cases their families”, is a sentence in The Leader-Post of 4/28/08. This three-page article says many things about the differences between female and male gamblers. Women usually start later in their lives than men, but get addicted sooner, the article says.

Bingo! Church finds a home, an item in The 4/28 StarPhoenix, writes that an expanding congregation in Riversdale is moving into a bingo hall. We quote:

“The reality is people get addicted to bingo. We know because we deal with those people. As a matter of fact, they’d come here and drop their kids off at Kidz Club (the church’s program for ages five to 12 that includes supper and activities) in the evenings and then go and play bingo and all their support cheque would be gone.”

(At Gambling we’ve heard recently more than once that bingo is as addictive as some other means of gambling)

Ontario

Wage freeze at casino, an article in The 4/28/08 Niagara Falls Review, explains the casino’s president’s decision in this paragraph:

“After reviewing our wages and salaries to other commercial casinos in Ontario, to similar positions in the local area and to our competition in New York, we believe it is necessary to freeze all wages and salaries this fiscal year”.

The paper then writes about the past attempts to get the CAW involved.

In Casino - CAW to discuss attire, an item in The 4/29/08 Windsor Star, we read that the Union and the management representatives at ‘Caesars Windsor’ have agreed to form a committee to address the concerns raised by some of the female beverage workers who feel that their new uniforms are too skimpy.

The next day this paper publishes a letter to the editor written by Robert Simpson of the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre in Guelph, in reaction to a letter to the editor written by Bill Rutsey, CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association and printed in this paper on 4/22/08. We quote:

“Mr. Rutsey’s disingenuous use of selective quotes, his inaccurate comparison of two studies and his selective application of criteria are the work not of a scientist seeking the truth, but of an industry lobbyist endeavouring to generate a smokescreen. I am reminded of the tobacco industry’s now infamous credo in relation to the “research” it funded in the U.S.: “Our product is doubt.””

For full coverage see Gambling Watch Global: Manufacturing uncertainty

The 4/30/08 London Free Press in ‘Former custodian jailed for $250,000 fraud’ writes that the man accused of the fraud that had a disastrous affect on the members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4222 blames his gambling addiction. He’ll have to be in jail for 21 months, gets 3 years’ probation, is also ordered restitution of $250,000, and is to repay $300 biweekly, starting two months after he’s out of jail.

In Casinos offer buyouts to full time staff The 5/2/08 Niagara Falls Review reports that full-time employees at Niagara’s two casinos have less than two weeks to decide whether to take a buyout package or hold onto their jobs. The next day this paper has 2 more items on the same subject. One of them writes ‘Uncertain economy brings cutbacks’ and ‘there is also ’a program to shift workers’ status to part time from full time’. The other tells that some buyouts are already being reviewed.

This paper also writes that Fort Erie’s racetrack opened for business Saturday for its 111th season, while another item reports that Fallsview Casino Resort and Casino Niagara took two of the major honours up for grabs at Casino Montreal Thursday night during the 2008 Canadian Gaming Summit awards gala in Montreal.

Quebec

Hashish smuggler is granted day parole but can’t visit casinos is the heading of a 4/29/08 The Gazette article reporting that this unusual condition was attached to the former businessman after he told the National Parole Board that a significant gambling debt contributed to his decision to switch from importing textiles to illicit drugs.

Atlantic Canada

A 4/30/08 CBC item headed NL gambling suicides not that common, med examiner says has a medical examiner doing the same thing the Canadian Gaming Association does: minimise the damage gambling is doing to Canadians. May we suggest that he talks to the citizens who have lost relatives to gambling-related suicides? It’s obvious that Prof. Kenna, whose book he criticizes, has done so.

Nova Scotia

VLT retailers voice concerns is an article in the 5/2/08 Halifax Herald that - along its other figures - reports that there are about 2,230 of these satanic machines in Nova Scotia. Now some 40 people, mostly owners of bars and restaurants, discussed a recent media report that VLTs are providing business operators with a lucrative return on their investment. At their meeting they talked of financial pressures that are dogging lounge owners and other VLT retailers. Not everyone is doing well. We quote:

The cost of rent, electricity . . . and they’re already facing higher liquor costs this year. There’s (also) new minimum wages (for employees) as of today.”

We’d suggest: give up those evil VLTS!

Union official who stole $29K ‘lost moral compass’, an article in the 5/3/08 Halifax Herald, gives a lot of information. Here is the line that means a lot to us: “Mr. Mossman said he developed sleep apnea, high blood pressure, depression and became addicted to video lottery terminals.”

5/1/2008: Manufacturing uncertainty

Re: Gambling Figures Out of Line, April 22, by Bill Rutsey.

Mr. Rutsey, the CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association, endeavours to obfuscate discussion of the impact of problem gambling. As the industry lobbyist, it is clearly his job to produce calming words to convince the province and the public that all that can be done is being done, and that no further action need be considered.

This approach has been labelled “manufacturing uncertainty,” by David Michaels in a 2005 article in the American Journal of Public Health (Vol. 95 No. S1) [.pdf] who states: “Opponents of public health and environmental regulations often try to “manufacture uncertainty” by questioning scientific evidence on which regulations are based.

Though most identified with the tobacco industry, this strategy has been used by producers of other hazardous products. Its proponents use the label “junk science” to ridicule research that threatens powerful interests.

Mr. Rutsey’s disingenuous use of selective quotes, his inaccurate comparison of two studies and his selective application of criteria are the work not of a scientist seeking the truth, but of an industry lobbyist endeavouring to generate a smokescreen. I am reminded of the tobacco industry’s now infamous credo in relation to the “research” it funded in the U.S.: “Our product is doubt.”

The Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre is an arms-length agency created by the province to fund credible research into the causes of and effective responses to problem gambling. This structure reflects the intention of government to support research in a way that best meets public interests. Oversight is provided by an independent board of directors with impeccable credentials and a commitment to scientific investigation.

ROBERT SIMPSON
Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre
Guelph

Gambling figures out of line Bill Rutsey Canadian Gaming Association The Windsor Star April 22, 2008

Manufacturing Uncertainity: Contested Science and the Protection of the Public’s Health and Environment David Michaels, PhD, MPH, and Celeste Monforton, MPH Supplement 1, 2005, Vol 95, No. S1 American Journal of Public Health (html)

Robert:

You can’t realize what a great boost your letter in The Windsor Star is. How fascinating to met that today The London Free Press has a story about a school janitor who misdirected 250 thousand dollars. After five years he will begin a two year prison term. It will take 31 years to repay his gambling debt.

I wonder if Mr. Rutsey will tell us who pays for this.

This is the most potent letter from a high profile specialist I’ve seen regarding the damage inflicted by the social landmine of gambling. Thank you.

4/29/2008: Gambling Watch Canada Newsletter

Canada’s Gambling Watch Network’s weekly e-mailed Newsletter

Volume 9 Issue 027 CWE April 28, 2008

Finance

The 4/22/08 Vancouver Sun reports that online gambling empire Bodog is losing its top dog as Maverick Canadian businessman and part-time Vancouver resident Calvin Ayre says he has quit.

Ayre, now 47, became involved in the online gambling industry in the late 1990s, and introduced Bodog in 2000, the online gambling empire that brought him fame, fortune and heat.

In The 4/23/08 Toronto Star, we read that Macao limits gambling licences and casino land. We quote:

the world’s largest gaming hub, said yesterday it would rein in the booming industry by halting issue of new licences and freezing land allocations to build more casinos.

The article makes it clear that Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing is behind this decision.

Vegas reaches high with vertical city is a Canwest News Service 4/27/08 item reporting that a proposed $8B US “vertical city” in Las Vegas, described as the largest privately financed development in the history of North America, will have a decided green tinge, according to a project official.

A joint venture between MGM Mirage and Dubai World, in collaboration with eight internationally acclaimed architects, City-Center will include a 61-storey, 4,000-room hotel/casino. It will also offer two 400-room, non-gaming hotels, a 500,000-square-foot retail and entertainment district called The Crystals, and about 2,650 luxury condominium and hotel-condominium units.

Poker

A 4/18/08 CP item says Canadian Glen Chorny, - he studies business and history at Wilfrid Laurier University - won over C3M (C$3.21M) at the poker tournament’s Grand Final at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort. He defeated Denes Kalo of Hungary in the final, who took home 1.18M euros (C$1.87M) for finishing second.

Poker fundraisers forced to fold’em an item in The 4/23/08 North Bay Nugget, reports that a monthly Texas hold’em tournament at the Rorab Shrine Club in North Bay has folded after several establishments in Timmins were advised in March by an inspector with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario that such card tournaments are illegal; charities are often issued licences in Ontario for bingo games, break-open tickets or raffles, but card tournaments are prohibited outside of casinos under the Criminal Code.

Horse-racing

‘Track neglected ORC told’, an item in The 4/23/08 Windsor Star, writes that dozens of area horsemen and some gamblers got few answers to their complaints about live racing conditions and amenities for patrons at Windsor Raceway.

The session was organized after the Ontario Harness Horse Association and the raceway agreed last week to continue the number of remaining race days in the season, with a reduced purse for horsemen.

Raceway still wants to move, an article in the 4/25/08 paper, reports that the two-years-old idea of a new track, spectator arena and hotel in Tecumseh is not dead. It is just bogged down in pretrial discoveries until later this year, the lawyer says.

A letter to the editor in the same issue complains that a Billy Joel concert is only accessible for invited elite members.

The 4/23 Hamilton Spectator raised this questions: “If council confirms the move, Flamborough will no longer get exclusive benefit from the slots revenues at Flamboro Downs. Is this fair? Should the redistribution of revenue to the city be phased in?

Further: Slot revenue battle heats up

British Columbia

Slots limit put on table, an item in The 4/27/08 Vernon Morning Star, says that Counc. Barry Beardsell wants to limit the number of slot machines to 200. He obviously knows what slots do.

“It draws that much more money out of our economy,” he said of expanding gambling.
There is a loss of funds to the economic well-being of our community and an impact on lives and families.

Ontario

‘City’s revenue from casino reaches $932,000’ reports the 4/21 Brantford Expositor in an article comparing that figure with the $869,726 received for the fourth quarter of 2007.

New casino uniforms degrading to women, the heading of a letter to the editor in the 4/22 Windsor Star,

“If Apparently we haven’t come as far as I thought in women’s rights in Canada. I find it disgusting that Caesars is suggesting such a sexist uniform for casino servers — a skirt that is so short it requires specially designed panties? Isn’t that a little much? If this company has such little respect for women, then they have lost my business and probably the business of other women as well.

This new uniform comes down to a lack of respect for and the objectifying of women. Caesars may own the property but the women who work there are not their property or objects. Women have the right to go about their workday without being gawked at or embarrassed. Taking home their pay cheque shouldn’t involve taking a chunk out of their humanity.

KELLY BOWEN
Windsor

The company the letter writer is aiming at is Caesars. The Windsor casino is in the process of becoming a part of that company.

Gambling figures out of line is the heading of another letter to the editor in the same issue, written by Bill Rutsey the CEO of the Canadian Gaming Association. In reaction to that paper’s 4/15/08 ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ (Casino Games) he calls the findings of the 2004 study by the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre ‘tentative findings, based upon the anecdotal recollections of 32 problem gamblers and 92 subjects, in total almost 10 times higher than more definitive work on the subject’.

‘Casino’s grand opening snubs average patrons’, is a letter to the editor in this 4/23 paper, protesting against the fact that Billy Joel’s performance is ‘invitation-only’.

$20,006,632 split down in the middle - has been poured into the coffers of the town of Gananoque and Leeds and the Thousand Islands Township by the OLG Casino Thousand Islands since it began operations on land straddling these two municipalities in June 2002.

Municipal take from casino hits $20 million; No problem spending all that cash: Officials

Two charged after gambling bust, is the title of a 4/24/08 item in The Toronto Star. It writes that, after presenting a search warrant and entering the Bloor Café, at Bloor St. West and Ossington Ave., the Toronto police and the OPP seized five video gambling machines and $1,500 worth of illegal cigarettes. “Panayotis Chronas, 65, and Michelle Amaral, 29, both Toronto residents, face charges and are scheduled to appear in a Toronto court June 4,” we quote.

Atlantic Canada

In Lotto Corp plugs data security holes, a CP article in The 4/24/08 Chronicle Herald, we find this paragraph:

Robert Bourgeois, a spokesman with the corporation, said it has tightened employees’ ability to obtain information about tickets and gaming following the operational review by KPMG Forensic.

The report also unintentionally revealed that the ALC has the ability to change payback percentages (house advantage or hold %) on their VLTs through their central system. If they did that by staking a deck of cards at the blackjack tables to increase the house advantage (hold %), it would be considered “cheating at play”. But, who’s to bust them when know one knows?

Prince Edward Island

On 4/24/08 The Guardian reported that opposition finance critic Jim Bagnall wants to know if the provincial government is breaking the law by allowing Dooly’s to operate 10 VLTs while the law only allows only five VLTs per location. The reply given is that there are 10 machines under one roof but they are also under two separate licenses – one for the five machines owned by Summerside Raceway and the other for the five machines owned by Dooly’s. Summerside Raceway is scheduled to open on May 19. PCs question legality of video lottery move from SRW

Nova Scotia

A letter to the editor in The 4/21/08 Cape Breton Post calls the government a big winner of its sin taxes. It states that in 1997 gambling revenues were $13M and that for the first three quarters of 2007 the figure was $15 million.

In doing research about the revenues gained by government taxation on cigarettes, gambling and alcohol, I called Statistics Canada to compare a couple of years.
These figures were listed in the Consolidated Federal, Provincial, Territorial and Local Government Revenue and Expenditure Annual.
In 1996 the taxes declared for alcohol and tobacco were $2,967,000,000, and in the first three quarters of 2007 the amount was $3,943,000,000. A cursory perusal of these figures would give one the impression that even if a number of smokers have died of smoking-related diseases since 1996, several new people must have picked up the habit.
The really odd figures were for gambling. In 1997 the revenues declared were $13 million; for the first three quarters of 2007 the figure was $15 million.
Given that people spend more on gambling than on tobacco and alcohol together, we soon realize that the reason gambling revenues are listed as the “amusement tax” is that the people pocketing the profits from gambling are laughing all the way to their offshore bank accounts.
Laurie Coffin
Sydney

Lotteries

Lottery winners would keep on working, says survey, an item in The 4/25/08 National Post, says that the results of a Royal Bank survey show that only 35% of those polled would quit their jobs and retire permanently if they won $5M.

Has there ever been a real need for gambling as a game?

About a year ago I saw a story in a newspaper reporting that on a certain holiday five people died in traffic accident around the city of Toronto. The way the article was written brought my mind to gambling: what are the odds of arriving alive if you drive to Toronto on a public holiday?

When any serious person starts thinking along those lines, she or he must come to the conclusion that the life is full of chances for us human beings. Will your job make it possible for you to regard working as a profitable thing? Will it allow you to make a good living? Will the love of and for the person you married survive any and all difficulties life might bring? Will …
When you think about this you come to realize that for anybody life is full of chances that nobody can foresee.

May I use myself as an example?
As the youngest boy of a 12-children-family a serious question turned up when I was 12 years old. Our father died of a job-related disease. Could our Mom afford to keep me at the high school I was attending so I could get a decent job later? My older siblings provided the answer by dumping whatever money they earned in our Mom’s purse.

When I turned 15, the Germans invaded our country and I survived the first of at least 50 air raids. Some 3 years later, I was deported to their country as a slave-labourer. My buddy and I were liberated by accidentally running into the Second British army without hearing a shot.

Shortly after I got home, I was drafted into the Dutch army and served more than three years in a guerrilla war situation. I survived with only a shot in one of my legs.

I learned to drive when I served in the army, and after I arrived in Canada I had all kinds of jobs, ending up as a professional driver who covered and survived millions of miles. I had only one serious accident caused by another driver disregarding a red light.

Now I am nearly 83 years old, and still able to work for Canada’s Gambling Watch Network.

I must add here that, as a practising Christian, I see God’s hand in the story of my life and that I am thankful for being able to still work.

Did I succeed in making clear that every living human being has a life full of chances? For that reason, it’s really stupid if we seek more chances by using a gambling game for entertainment. I regard it as criminal for our governments to make money from the people who fall for that so-called gaming.

I do agree that Video Lottery Terminals are among the worst EGMs, but ALL gambling games have and can lead to bankruptcies, family break-ups, murder, and suicide, and even lotteries are included in that.
The news items we have gathered in the last nine years make that very clear!

Johannes DeViet

4/22/2008: Gambling Watch Canada Network Newsletter

Canada’s Gambling Watch Network’s weekly e-mailed Newsletter

Volume 9 Issue 027 CWE April 21‘08

Canada
‘Welcome to Gambling Watch Global Community Blog’ contains a letter to the Editor of the Toronto Star by our Bill Clark that was not published. You’ll enjoy reading it!

Gambling -You bet it’s fun is a letter published in The United Church Observer by one of its ministers that we definitely did not enjoy. Despite the fact that his Church often has expressed itself as being anti-gambling, he seems to see it as a pleasant entertainment.

On March 16 2006 the Canadian Gambling Association had a News Release with this title: ‘VLT gaming in Canada is well-regulated and operated with a high degree of public accountability, according to a fact-based, research report commissioned by the Canadian Gaming Association (CGA)’. Today the CGA still is as hypocritical as it was in 2006.

Finance

Casino operator MGM Mirage is laying off around 400 management employees as part of a corporate cost-cutting program launched last year amid signs of a slower economy, a company spokesman confirmed yesterday

in The 4/16/08 Toronto Star. The item also says that the job cuts account for less than 1% of the company’s total workforce.

Horse racing

Cash-strapped raceway seeks schedule cuts, a 4/15/08 Windsor Star item, is followed after 2 days by ‘Compromise deal keeps raceway schedule intact’, reporting that the Raceway has come to an agreement to reduce the nightly purses to horsemen to keep the schedule intact for the rest of the harness racing season which ends in May. (cached - Admin)

British Columbia

Government ‘addicted to gambling ’’ is a The Province 4/14/08 article mentioning that BC’s government shows this addiction by continuing to bring slot machines to bingo halls to create mini-casinos across the province.

Boardwalk Gaming and Entertainment wants to put 75 to 150 slot machines in its bingo hall at 7093 King George Highway in Surrey’s Newton area

We are glad to read in this article that in BC the ‘Multicultural Coalition Against Gambling Expansion’, led by Bill Chu, works to keep citizens aware of the government’s efforts to cause them to lose more money by gambling on the deceiving and addictive slot machines.

Gambling in BC on the decline, an item in The 4/15/08 Vancouver Sun, is in our opinion, not worth reading. It makes no sense to count people as gamblers when they once a year participate in a charity lottery. That the percentage of once-a-year gamblers is getting lower is very logical. When people hear charities advertising their lottery in a totally greed-promoting way, it is no wonder that they quit supporting them. Others might have learned their lesson at casinos or bingo halls and have decided that gambling games that are advertised as entertainment are no fun.

Casino growth may up addiction, a 4-page item in the 4/16 Nanaimo Daily News, says that some studies show a correlation between playing opportunities and gambling woes. It gives this paragraph:

A development proposal has been submitted to the City of Nanaimo, on behalf of the Great Canadian Casino, for a massive upgrade and expansion to the 19,000-square-foot casino, located adjacent to Port Place Mall downtown.

If all papers whose cities face a gambling expansion would deal with the expected results as this paper does, some expansions might be cancelled! Our spokesman, Brian Yealland, is even quoted! Ask us for the links to this very interesting item.

Alberta

22-year-old shipper/receiver declared sole winner of jackpot, is a line in the gambling-promoting 4/13/98
Edmonton Sun reporting a $10,000 bingo win by one of its subscribers.

Province addicted to gambling revenues is the heading of a 4/13/08 article in The Calgary Herald that relates Alberta’s 2006 $2.3B gambling revenue to “the more devastating price of addiction that includes depression, divorce, bankruptcy, and sometimes suicide”.

Two days later this paper’s Editorial page has an article with the heading; ‘Addictions no reason to deny gambling rights. Does this writer realize that for many years gambling as a game was regarded as a crime? Our normal lives are so full of chances that many of us believe that people are abnormal who claim they have a right to gamble.

In the 4/20/08 Edmonton Sun the Bingo gambling promotion continues.

Manitoba

Suspected VLT lounge bandit a danger-cops is a 4/19/08 Winnipeg Sun article reporting that two men robbed the First Nation’s Ebb and Flow VLT lounge of an unknown amount of money.

Saskatchewan

An item in The 4/18/08 Leader-Post says:

The Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation (SGC) is entertaining the idea of making a couple of improvements to Casino Regina. Our tag is ‘Always Entertaining’ and to do that we need to keep the property fresh and we need to keep it exciting,” explained Angela Gordon, SGC director of corporate affairs”. Does the SGC know and realize that its ‘entertainment’ has a very dark and dangerous side?

Ontario

Parents call for more programs for teens battling mental illness, addiction is an article in The 4/14/08 Globe and Mail (cached - Admin) that doesn’t mention gambling at all. We know that children too young to take part in legalized gambling still may be sucked into illegal gambling or/and Internet gambling. Are parents’ eyes open to that possibility?

Lotto agency sues to recoup 5.75M jackpot (archived - admin) is the heading of a 4/15 item in The National Post.
In January ‘05 the OLGC paid out a $5.75M jackpot to Toronto store owner Hafiz Malik because it had “no reason” to doubt the man’s version of how he came to buy the winning ticket. The OLGC now alleges he duped it, according to a statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court that is an effort to get back the jackpot and the legal costs. We quote:

Mr. Malik, 60, was charged by police in December with two counts of fraud, one count of theft and one count of possession of stolen property related to the June, 2004, lottery jackpot. His assets were seized and he is free on bail.

Casino games is the title of an Editorial in The 4/15/08 Windsor Star that talks mostly of the supposed good that gambling does while it also mentions the bad and the ugly. Yet it calls it an ‘industry’ while it really is a predatory piracy that consists by robbing those that are mentally weak.

New Caesars uniform too skimpy and very low cut, some staff complain is an item in that 4/17/08 paper reporting that, as the casino gets geared up for its June unveiling under the Caesars brand, some of its female beverage workers are decrying a new, toga-like uniform as ‘too revealing’. Here is a quote:

The skirt is really, really short,” the worker said. “The top is very low-cut. It looks more like tennis skirt with slits in the front and back where you have to wear panties underneath. So, if you have to wear panties underneath you know it’s too short.”

City pockets $405,000 from OLG slots revenue is the heading of a 4/19/08 item in this paper. It also writes that in 2007-08, Ontario will allocate $105M million in gambling revenues to charitable organizations through the Ontario Trillium Foundation, said OLG.

Niagara Casinos honour best of the best, an article in the 4/17 /08 Niagara Falls Review, reports that several casino workers received $5,000 for the way they relate to gamblers.

The next day this paper writes that slot revenue in Fort Erie inched up marginally from January through the end of March. Fort Erie received a cheque of $305,686. For the last 2007 quarter it was paid $301,579.

Cashing in on gambling is an article in the 4/19/08 Sarnia Observer reporting that Point Edward would receive $461,665 for its waterfront casino, and the city $363,499 for the slots at the Hiawatha facility.

‘A new self-help group for gambling addicts has formed in Kingston to replace a group that folded last month’ is a line in The 4/19/08 Kingston Whig Standard. This paper reports also that (we quote):

Based on government-backed research in Ontario, it is likely that more than 3,000 people in Kingston have serious gambling addictions. Gamblers lose billions of dollars annually across Canada. In 2005, Ontario alone pocketed $2 billion in gambling profits, according to Statistics Canada.

Quebec

The 3/15/08 Montreal Gazette writes that plans to build a new casino in Mont Tremblant by the summer of 2009 were unveiled by a group of provincial, municipal and Loto-Québec officials gathered in the Laurentian town for the announcement. We quote:

Already an international tourist destination, the casino slated to be built on Tremblant’s south slope will add another reason to head to Tremblant, the officials said. The facility’s gambling attractions will include 400 slot machines, 20 gaming tables, five electronic Texas hold-em games and a private room for high-rollers

It is expected to attract 700,000 visitors a year and to generate annual revenues of $50M. It will be Quebec’s fourth casino. The announcement was delayed by the recent suicide of an addicted gambler.

Boxenbaum’s late night charisma pays off for CJAD, an article in The 4/16/08 West End Chronicle, and Tremblant gambles, an item in The 4/17/08 Montreal Mirror, have nothing but good things to tell of the work being done by Sol Boxenbaum, our co-worker against Canada’s still expanding gambling scenario. We congratulate Sol with this coverage.

Mohawk territory gambling on a risky business is a 5-page article in The 5/19/08 Toronto Star reporting that on the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal, poker and a business that services online gambling sites are both lucrative and controversial. It is impossible for us to do justice to all the information this item contains.

United States

Owing to the widespread expansion of casinos, the cost of pathological and problem gambling has soared to nearly half the annual cost of drug abuse in the United States, an expert at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign says in a new book, Gambling in America: Costs and Benefits

is a quote from an article about Earl L. Grinols’ book. We cannot resist another quote:

The social costs of gambling, such as increased crime, lost work time, bankruptcies and financial hardships faced by the families of gambling addicts, have reached epidemic proportions, costing the economy as much as $54 billion annually, Earl L. Grinols, an Illinois economist, has written in ‘Gambling in America: Costs and Benefits,’ published this month by Cambridge University Press.

Would the members of the Canada Gaming Association and our provincial governments finally see the unbelievable one-sidedness of their gambling positions and promotions if they read books like this one?

4/22/2008: Side effects

But suicides are a real side effect

Nearly fifty years of community pharmacy gave me a little insight into addiction and side effects of drugs.
The reluctance of the CGA to admit that the creation of nearly half a million gambling addicts, a number published for Ontario, is a fair price, not to mention anywhere from 2000 to possibly many more gambling suicides.
Entertainment is not something one would suspect of an overdose, sure, one can overeat, one can drink
a little to much, pass out… but cause suicide.
Well, B F Skinner did warn, pigeon, rat, or human, gambling is addictive.
Yes addiction has consequences
But then, to turn around and blame the “player”, that is a little too much.
In Quebec, suicide warning appear over the VLTs.
Don”t see those warnings with OLG products in Ontario.
see previous post

4/13/2008: Canadian Gaming Association crusade to launder gambling

Letter to Toronto Star re: Gambling employs 267,000 in Canada ( Canadian Gaming Assoc.)

Canada’s largest and most financially significant entertainment industry is gambling, accounting for 267,000 full-time jobs and contributing $15.3 billion a year to the economy, according to the Canadian Gaming Association.
The industry group’s report released Tuesday and based on 2006 data says 57 per cent of gambling revenue – $8.7 billion – supported government services and charities.
The other $6.6 billion “was spent to sustain operations, paid out as salaries, and used to purchase goods and services.”
The gaming association’s research, described as the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the economic impact of gaming in Canada, found 135,000 people are directly employed in the industry, and indirect gambling-related employment such as food and entertainment services swells the total to 267,000 full-time jobs. For 2006, this translated into $11.6 billion in labour income, the association says.
“Gaming has grown significantly over the past decade to become an essential pillar of the entertainment industry in Canada,” stated association president Bill Rutsey.

The above article appeared in your entertainment section. The 2004 report done by the University of Lethbridge goes on to state that 5 % of losers contribute 35 % of the losses. (Ontario) . Mr Rutsy goes on to state the gaming association employs a total of 402,000 people while it has addicted 449,000 people…
In a short 10 year history of Ontario gambling this might indicate about 1000 addicted “gamers” per week.
In that time, possibly 2000 gamers committed suicide, possible twice that number, a side effect of slots & vlt gambling.
The Canada Safety Council wrote the Premiers and the Provincial Coroners across Canada, voicing concerns with the safety of casino gambling. Mr Rutsy may well call it entertainment, but as a retired pharmacist, none of my customers “od’d” (overdosed) on entertainment, with such consequences.

In November of 2004, Jay Ingram stated in The Toronto Star:

Paul Garfinkel wrote both The Ontario Minister of Health (1), and also Minister Cordiano (2) to express his concerns for 449,000 Ontarians. The President & CEO of Centre for Addiction and Mental Health cited reports that less than 5 % of people who gamble, generate over one third of the losses, an amount of 1.41 billion dollars. He urged the minister of Health to deal with pathological gambling in the province’s casinos that cause economic hardship, family problems, violence, abuse, and even suicide. “

When one applies peer reviewed stats to nearly half a million Ontarians, how does no one question the high costs to Public Health stated above, that OLGC inflicts on the public by its operation ?
Is it cost effect to produce more addicts than jobs?
In a half million addicts, how many contribute more taxes, than use services ?
How is Public Health served when OLGC settles court cases out of court while forcing non disclosure ?
Isn’t this a crown corporation ?
The last question, if gambling diverts $16,000,000,000 (before social costs) away from small business, this means that some 500,000 jobs are lost to Canadian economy.
There is an Australian study shows one million dollars spent on gambling will produce 3 gambling jobs.
One million dollars spent in the retail business community 20 jobs.
Why don’t we have economic truth? Or social truth?
Mr Rutsey has a lot of convincing to do.

Further thoughts 21/04/08

If Mr Rutsey wants any credibility let him subject the report to a normal peer review.
See accepted practice for Tasmania
Publish a cost/benefit statement.
Lets hear the number of addicts created over 10 years
Lets hear the advertising dollars spent over 10 years
Lets hear the casino comps & losers awards given to buy addiction
Lets hear the dollars of crime created
Lets hear the weeks/months/court/jail/costs
Lets hear him state the numbers of suicide
Lets hear from the churches that pick up the damaged souls.
Let’s publish the Canada Safety Council concerns
Let have some social and economic truths.
Not a lot to ask for almost 200 billion dollars / year.

4/9/2008: Gambling Watch Canada

Canada’s Gambling Watch Network’s weekly e-mailed Newsletter
Volume 9 Issue 025 CWE April 7‘08

Finance

The 4/1/08 Toronto Star contains this paragraph:

Auto-parts mogul Frank Stronach wants to restructure his controlling stake in MI Developments Inc. and sell the firm’s money-losing interest in Magna Entertainment Corp. – to himself

in an article that also reports that ME’s stock is now trading in the 35-cent range after peaking at $16 in early 2002. The National Post has an item the next day, stating that last summer’s exit of 3 independent directors was already caused by this strife-causing issue, and in The 4/3/08 Calgary Herald we found an item with the heading: Shareholder group opposes Stronach’s plan to shed racetrack firm.

Gaming software firm places bet on Mahjong, an item in the 4/2 Toronto Star, says that CryptoLogic Ltd. is investing up to $2.5M (U.S.) to take a significant minority equity stake in Mahjong Time, an Asian developer of mah-jong software. We quote:

Mahjong Time earns revenue by licensing its software to gambling operators that run tournaments, subscriptions, pay-for-play sites and in-game advertising. It also has its own site, MahjongTime

Stronachs hefty pay arrangements are truly Magna cum laude is the heading of an item in The 4/5/08 Ottawa Citizen that contains many figures. Here is a quote:

In 2007, Stronach took home $40.6 million for business development, consulting and other services”, according to a company information circular released last week. Might figures like this one allow him to lose money on the horse racetracks that are his?

Casinos and Crime

The 4/4/08 Toronto Sun in Guilty Plea in 7m Casino Caper writes:

A fired card dealer accused of leading a crew that swindled casinos out of $7 million has pleaded guilty to multiple charges — the seventh of 19 members of the ring to admit guilt.

Sex and Gambling

When sex is on the brain men more likely to gamble is the conclusion of a study done at the Stanford University, reports The 4/4/08 Calgary Herald.

New research from Stanford University has shown that in the immediate aftermath of viewing “positive emotional stimuli,” which, in this case, were erotic photos of a man and woman, heterosexual men are more likely to take bigger financial risks.

British Columbia

‘Jail time for friends who bilked BC’s top lottery winner’, an article in The 4/3/08 Vancouver Sun, reports that the 2005 winner of a $24M lottery was defrauded of $3.5M and that the couple found guilty of civil contempt of court for trying to hide the ill-gotten money will be jailed; the husband for 21 days, his wife for 14 days. This 2-page story contains many particulars.

Racing saga finally ends for Catholic Diocese, the heading of a 4/4/08 Vancouver Sun item, might be the end of a story that started between 1988 and 1992 when then Bishop Remi De Roo of the Victoria diocese invested about $2 million in the Arabian horse deal with a Mr. Finley. We haven’t taken the time to dig back (our oldest files go back only 9 years), but it seems that this story is ended when the Washington State Supreme Court this week decided not to hear an appeal by Seattle lawyer Joseph Finley against the diocese.

Alberta

Jail term urged for school council fraud is a story in The 4/4/08 Calgary Herald about a gambler who wrote at least 27 cheques to herself between July 2003 and December 2005 from the group’s casino account for a total of more than $29,000 when she was treasurer of Queensland Downs Elementary Parent Council. The case will be back in court April 15 to set a date for sentencing. What we’d like to know is why that group had a casino account!

Ontario

Gamblers urged to leave myths at casino door is, we hope, the last item for a long time from the province’s ‘responsible’ gambling promoters in The 3/31/08 Brantford Expositor.

Resist the gambling urge, an article in The 3/31/08 Ottawa Citizen, is Kate Van Slyck’s - on behalf of Ottawa’s Amethyst Women’s Addiction Centre, - reaction to Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation’s offer of a free Lotto 6/49 ticket to promote the opening of a new lottery booth in a store.

“We are presented with opportunities to gamble, and for someone trying to overcome a gambling problem, it can be hard to resist the temptation”, she writes.

If talks stall today, patrons will have to be alerted, CAW says is a line in The 4/2/08 Windsor Star in an article about the possibility of a strike. The next day’s paper writes in: Full-time jobs saved at casino that a tentative agreement has been reached, and on 4/3/08 we’re told in ‘Full Steam Ahead’ that 84.7% of workers back the Casino deal, thus avoiding a strike that their CAW executive had warned could have been catastrophic for their futures. This article also writes:

The Caesars sign was installed this week and, with the strike out of the way, the casino can concentrate on building momentum toward its relaunch in June.

“The $24.5 million lotto win by workers at Powco Steel in Barrie has been classified as “a suspicious win” by Ontario gaming officials after another potential winner has come forward” we wrote in our Jan. 21 Newsletter. What follows now is a quote from The 4/5/08 Toronto Sun:

Some exuberant Powco Inc. workers left in glee yesterday with a $772,350 lottery cheque in their hands after hitting the jackpot in the office pool. Others left angry after learning their expected payout had been reduced — for now — by about $150,000.

The article ends by saying that five portions will be put on hold until the legal haggling between the five claimants is settled.

Quebec

Loto-Québec merges units is an item in the 4/3/08 Gazette reporting that, with its revenue from VLTs sliding, Loto-Québec has quietly closed what had been a separate entity, the Société des Salons de Jeux, and merged it back into its general VLT division. The latest report shows that the struggling gambling halls, set up at a cost of over $65M and opened late last year alongside the horseracing tracks in Trois Rivières and Quebec City, are running a deficit in the three months ended Dec. 31’08, with operating costs of $4.7M and a revenue of only $3.8M.

On the same date this paper has an article with the title: Gambling in Quebec is returning to the underworld. This item has so many subjects that we cannot do justice to it without using too much space of this Newsletter. It first talks of the continued inability of Loto and its private-sector partner, Attractions Hippiques, to find a location in Laval or on the North Shore for a transplanted Blue Bonnets racetrack, and about the fact that the existing racetracks have attracted only half of the people expected. It then talks of the now dead plan to build a big new Montreal casino close to downtown.

What we’re seeing now, however, is a swing back to forms of gambling that are outside the government’s supposedly socially responsible sponsorship

It then mentions Kahnawake’s casino gambling, illegal gambling in all kinds of hidden places, and Internet gambling. We cannot resist this paragraph: “Far more people are gambling now than was the case before Loto’s marketing wizards transformed an activity that had been disreputable and generally shunned into one that was respectable and, if you believe the TV adds, rapturous. The toll on personal finances and happiness became irrelevant”. All Canada’s provinces ought to remember these words while we wonder if this change, caused by the greed of our mob-minded provincial governments, can ever be reversed!

In the 4/4 Winnipeg Sun, we found a CP item with this heading: Loto-Quebec says man died after frequenting Montreal Casino.

He was found dead in his car that evening after the vehicle was spotted under a bridge near the casino

while Sol Boxenbaum writes:

“The distraught gambler stopped his car on the bridge connecting the city to Ile Notre Dame, tied one end of a rope to the bridge, the other end around his neck, and jumped from the bridge. Paramedics and firemen attempted to resuscitate him but were unable to do so”.

Nova Scotia

Casino layoffs rumoured, an article in the 4/5 Halifax Herald, contains news that states:

Great Canadian Gaming Corp. officials are disappointed with the performance of the Halifax and Sydney casinos and have told investors and analysts they’ll take steps to make them more profitable. The company is now in talks with the Nova Scotia Gaming Corp. about changes.

Editors Note

Whenever I read a story about a lottery win, I am struck by the fact that the reporter never fails to tell at which business the ticket was bought. Is that done to encourage others to buy tickets there?

4/7/2008: Culture of Shame

While researching and writing a book on video lottery terminals in Atlantic Canada, Peter McKenna says he was constantly frustrated by uncomfortable politicians, difficult-to-access information and public servants “terrified” to speak on the issue.

Particularly in Newfoundland and Labrador, McKenna encountered a “culture of shame” that kept stories of addiction underground and a government extremely reluctant to address the downside of VLTs.

“People in your province are absolutely terrified to go on the record,” McKenna tells The Independent from his home in Charlottetown, where he is a professor of political science at UPEI.

“They are terrified of Danny Williams. I couldn’t believe it. I had officials calling me back, saying ‘please don’t say that I said’ … oh God, it was horrible.”

Not that other provincial governments were much help, either. “All were very nervous and apprehensive and looking over shoulders and concerned I was naming them.

“It’s so politically sensitive, it’s radioactive.”

Not only the Atlantic provinces have a problem, Ontario is extremely senstive.

The VLT suicide rates: Peter McKenna:

As for anyone who dares ask questions about VLT-related suicide rates? Good luck to them.

“I had all kinds of difficulty getting the chief coroner in St. John’s,” McKenna says. “His office sent me e-mails, saying this and that, he was away, he was on vacation, he’d be back, then he wasn’t, it was ridiculous.

“The same in New Brunswick, they wouldn’t tell me anything. In Nova Scotia, they had stopped collecting the statistics … in P.E.I., it was simply unbelievable — I did speak to the chief coroner, he said they had added a line on the death investigation form, whether is was a gambling-related suicide.

“But he said they weren’t asking the question … and I thought ‘Oh my God.’ So I just ripped into him … he was emphatic that he hadn’t seen any red flags go off — but how would you know if you’re not even asking the question?”

But suicides are a real side effect, McKenna writes, stating that in Alberta gambling was considered a factor in 10 per cent of that province’s 2001 suicides. He firmly believes similar numbers are true in this province, where VLTs exact a “deadly toll.”

The head of the Canada Safety Council wrote all Canadian Premiers and coronors with concerns about the high rate of suicide from this form of entertainment. When we have equalizing formula provinces, it is hard to see your money pi**ed away gambling.

Professor McKenna’s conclusion is:

Throughout the writing of the book, McKenna says, he searched for solutions to the “scourge” of VLT addiction. As much as he tried, he says, he couldn’t find any recommendation “other than to get rid of them.”

He doesn’t have much hope of it happening, though. McKenna says he sees a sort of “resignation” within the public that gambling is here to stay. In Newfoundland and Labrador, more than the other Atlantic provinces, there is no concentrated anti-VLT lobby group to keep the issue alive; church and community leaders rarely speak out; media coverage is sporadic at best.

And, as much as VLT gambling caught on as a social activity, it proved difficult to find people to offer public accounts of the negative results of gambling.

I would wholeheartedly agree that in a true cost benefit study the provinces would be much futher ahead with out the slotterer house mentality.

Peter McKenna’s book Terminal Damage will be available this week.

3/31/2008: Canada’s Gambling Watch Newsletter

Canada’s Gambling Watch Network’s weekly e-mailed Newsletter

Volume 9 Issue 024 CWE March 31‘08

What is Gambling?

When I read in the 3/26/08 Newfoundland newspaper St. John’s Telegram that complaints are coming in from eastern Canadians who think Tim Horton’s staff are rolling up the rim to check for winners first, then passing off losing cups, I asked my co-workers if that yearly feature really has to be seen as gambling. The affirmative reply came from Roger Horbay who knows much more about laws than I do. The answer he gave was:

Yes, ‘roll up the rim’ can be seen as gambling because it’s a ‘game of chance’ as defined by the Competition Act. In fact, Tim Horton abides by all the requirement of that Act, including disclosing the odds. When I went by Tim’s to get a coffee, I asked them for the rules of the game and the odds of winning and they gave me a sheet with all the information, as required by law.

Here is the point Roger was making: Tim Horton, a private company, abides by the Competition Act and discloses the odds of their ‘game of chance’ as required by law, while our casinos and racinos, owned by our government, do not provide the odds of EGMs, including slots, when EGMs are also ‘games of chance’. Why doesn’t the Alcohol & Gaming Commission of Ontario demand that EGM operators (the OLG) comply with the law and disclose the odds on EGMs? It’s supposed to regulate and oversee EGMs. Why do we have double standards?

Is it any wonder that we admire Tim Horton, love their coffee and partake in its annual ‘game of chance’ but that we don’t buy the OLG’s lottery tickets?
Rim rage grips Tim Hortons’ on East Coast

Johannes Deviet.

Horseracing

(See also Alberta, Ontario and Quebec news items)

Our editor found two articles about horseracing; the 3/27/08 one, in the Edmonton Journal and the 3/28/08 one, in the Brandon Sun. Our editor knows almost nothing about this hobby. Their titles are: Owner fails to back own horse in 33-1 win and Horse of the Year Curlin set for 12 rivals in US 6 million Dubai World Cup.
British Columbia

Great Canadian Casino Corp. donated $11,111 to the World Parrot Refuge on Vancouver Island for a planned hospital to care for elderly birds’ is a 3/24/08 Vancouver Sun sentence.

Alberta

In ‘Horses hockey and gov’t grants’, a letter to the Editor that was published in The 3/28/08 Edmonton Journal, its author reacts to a 3/26/08 news item that said: Provincial politicians cool to talk of financial aid for arena: Sports project not the place for tax dollars,” Here is the shortened content of his question: ‘If that is so, why was $200 million of our closely watched taxpayer money poured into professional horse racing?’

Saskatchewan

Alta chief wins huge jackpot is an article in The 3/28/08 StarPhoenix and Leader-Post about the chief of an Alberta First Nation that recently opened a casino and won a jackpot of his own at Saskatchewan’s Dakota Dunes.

Chief Cameron Alexis won $524,045 Wednesday evening in the Smoke Signals progressive jackpot. Gamblers at all SIGA casinos can play, with a portion of each dollar spent added to the jackpot.

Casino Regina turns off lights for Earth Hour is an item in The 3/29/08 Leader-Post that we only mention because it gives us the opportunity to state that if all lights would go off for ever in all casinos it would do mother earth a lot of good.

The 3/23/08 Niagara Falls Review reports that horses are to begin training this week at the Fort Erie racetrack. The next day this paper writes that thoroughbred racing is getting ready to return to the track but that it could use a little help from the weatherman.

Ontario

A sentence in The 3/24/08 Sarnia Observer says:

Eleven per cent of Ontario residents believe gambling will make them rich, but the Responsible Gambling Council delivered the cold, hard truth during a weekend campaign in Sarnia.

What the Observer neglects to say is the sad fact that the OLGC by its advertising and gambling promotion has planted that faulty belief in the minds of many more Ontarians. Just look at the line-ups at lottery counters!

In an article that is published in almost all North America’s newspapers, The 3/24/08 London Free Press reports:

Anna Falco, 53, hit the jackpot at Casino Rama just before midnight Saturday, setting a record for the largest slot payout in Canadian history at exactly $8,920,622.89.

The 3/26/08 Toronto Sun writes that police officers say that a 4-month-old baby was found in a locked car that was left running while the mother was in casino Rama.

The 39-year-old woman still has custody of her child, but the Children’s Aid Society is investigating the incident.

In Earning less from sin taxes that same day’s paper reports that Ontario’s lottery sales are holding firm despite some recent scandals, but officials said the high Canadian dollar and stiff competition from the U.S. is hurting casinos.

The take from gambling is expected to fall $140 million to $1.805 billion in 2007-08, with another $33-million drop forecast for next year. Part of that is also blamed on new regulations banning smoking in casinos, which has contributed to a continuing decline in the province’s windfall from tobacco taxes — falling from $1.236 billion in 2006-07 to $1.121 billion this year, a $115-million drop. The revenues are expected to fall even further as Ontarians smoke less and, increasingly, turn to tax-free contraband cigarettes. Provincial officials have not yet been able to sort out which of those factors is driving the bulk of the decline. Meanwhile, sales are good over at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, where revenues are up $59 million to $1.366 billion, with another $54-million rise expected in 2008-09.

The 3/26/08 Windsor Star in Concert listing pierces veil of casino secrecy set for summer, writes about the casino’s name change and expansion plans. The city’s mayor and council seem to think it’s important to bring visitors back to the city and the casino. Don’t they realize that promoting this piracy business is harming their people and guests? On the same day The Niagara Falls Review writes about Windsor’s casino planned change of name to

‘Caesars Windsor’. We quote ‘We have no plans to re-brand our properties like Windsor has chosen to do. The two competitive environments are completely different,’ said Niagara Casinos spokesman Greg Medulun. ‘Our brand is the falls, and our property names reflect that.’

The 3/26 Brockville Recorder and Times publishes the OLGC’s response to the Casino Watch item we mentioned last week. The article contains nothing that’s news to us.

In Casino strike date looms, an article in the 3/28 Windsor Star, we read that a mediator has been appointed to help settle the negotiations between Casino Windsor and C.A.W. Local 444 before a Thursday strike deadline forces the closure of the operation.

Quebec

Racetrack plan is still going ahead, a 3/26/08 article in the Montreal Gazette, is followed a day later by How to turn gambling into a losing bet. Our opinion is that horseracing is a slowly dying hobby anyway, but the author of the items sees the ‘responsible gambling’ policy of Loto-Québec as the guilty party of the diminishing VLTs proceeds, At the four racinos, Quebec is following the model of Nova Scotia. We quote:

To activate the electronic VLTs, players are required to obtain ‘responsible gaming cards’ with pre-set limits. The card costs $2 (refunded when you return it). When you reach your limit, the machine automatically shuts down. The maximum wager is $2.50 and maximum win $500. There are no loyalty programs, no table games.

Quebec is trying to justify the existence of racinos while still keeping machines in bars, bowling alleys and pool halls.

United States

Casino bill declared dead is an article in The 3/28/08 Herald Leader that reports: ‘There will be no casinos in Kentucky anytime soon’.

3/26/2008: Gambling Watch Canada Newsletter

Canada’s Gambling Watch Network’s weekly e-mailed Newsletter

Volume 9 Issue 023 CWE March 24‘08

Cyber Gambling

A 3/19/08 Dow Jones & Company paper’s article reports that an eccentric Harvard Law prof (he founded the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society at Harvard) led a rally at the Massachusetts State House to protest provisions of a pending resort casino bill that would criminalize online poker.

The Motley Fool of 3/19/08 writes that CryptoLogic (it packed its bags in 2006 and moved from Canada to Ireland to pursue Asian and European markets that still welcomed its business after the USA outlawed Internet gambling) reports that its fourth-quarter profit per share has tripled in the past year to $0.36 per share on $4.3 million in net income. “That easily blew away analysts’ expectations of $0.21 per share. In the fourth quarter of 2006, CryptoLogic earned just $1.7 million or $0.12 per share,” we quote.

Finance

Magna Ent. files qualification statement is a 3/22/08 Windsor Star article reporting that the unprofitable horse-track operator said it filed a “going-concern” qualification with its ‘07 financial statements. “A going-concern qualification is a statement from a company’s independent registered public accounting firm expressing substantial doubt, based upon current financial resources, whether the company can continue to meet obligations over the next year”, we quote.

British Columbia

The 3/18/08 and the 3/20/08 Vancouver Sun and the 3/21 The Province say that The Hastings Park Conservancy is “devastated” by the decision of B.C.’s highest court to reject their appeal of a City of Vancouver decision allowing slot machines at the racetrack, according to Derek Creighton, a lawyer for the community group. We quote: “In October 2005, city council enacted a controversial zoning bylaw that allowed up to 600 slots to be installed at the track. The city entered into an operating agreement with the racetrack, and the city’s development permit board conditionally approved the track operator’s development application. The community group took the case to court, arguing the zoning bylaw was invalid. But a B.C. Supreme Court judge upheld the bylaw and the right of the city to enter into the operating agreement”.

The next day the Hastings Park Conservancy told us that the issue of the jurisdiction of the Parks Board was not ruled on because the Parks Board didn’t take the time to show up and ask for a ruling, and that the HPC intends to decide next week about an appeal to the Supreme Court, while a 3/21 CP item in the Globe and Mail writes that Great Canadian Gam””ing has installed 150 slot machines at the Hastings Racecourse, and that it plans to add another 450 slot machines by early 2009.

Alberta

‘Red Deer bingo hall owner sees alcohol, VLTs as necessary addition’ is the heading of a 3/21/08 article in the Edmonton Journal. The mall’s manager says its profits have been sliced in half since a provincial ban on smoking in public places came into effect at the start of this year. The plan is to start serving alcohol at the end of this month and to open a small adjacent lounge some time later that will act as a drinking establishment featuring VLTs.

This week the Edmonton Sun once again is promoting its bingo gambling. Isn’t it evil enough that all our provinces promote gambling? The 3/23/08 Sun talks again of people who won some money. Most of those seem to be closer to old than to young persons.

Manitoba

A CP item in the 3/18/08 Winnipeg Sun reports that more than 57% of residents who voted in a March 12 plebiscite did not support establishment of a casino in their city. Monday night the council agreed that a letter be forwarded to the province and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs saying the city doesn’t want to take part in negotiations for a casino; one of the councillors said this: “I interpreted the vote a little more broadly (than the casino). They were also voting against an expansion of gambling”.

Ontario

This week we got tired of the publicity the oxymoronic so-called Responsible Gambling Council had: the Sudbury Star, the Durham Region News, the Niagara Falls Review, the Orillia Packet and Times, Chatham Daily News, all reported the groups visit. Imagine that anti addiction drugs groups called themselves Responsible Crack Councils. They’d end up in jail! We have great problems with the ORGC. They don’t tell addicts to stop gambling. They want them to keep doing it responsibly and within limits. That’s what the OLGC wants them to teach! Sickening! One of those items even states: Responsible gambling promoted!

‘Gambling a mug’s game’ is an opinion article in The 3/17/08 North Bay nugget that contains much truth about the stupidity of buying lottery tickets. It’s somewhat disappointing that it ends with talking about responsible gambling. Did that visiting group infect the author?

‘Casino big winner for Ideas at Work’ is an item in The 3/18/08 Niagara Falls Review saying: “Niagara Casinos has won a national Innovative Ideas at Work challenge. It was one of four Canadian organizations to win this award for putting their innovative beliefs into practice, and their workplace is healthier because of it”. We ask: “Can a casino ever really be a healthy place? What about its deceptive Electronic Gambling Machines?

A sentence in the 3/20/08 Bayshore Broadcasting Corp. says: ‘The YMCA Youth Gambling Awareness Program along with the Walkerton SALEP Centre performed a series of plays in front of Grade 4, 5, and 6 students at Hanover Heights Community School yesterday to show youth that gambling is not in the cards.

‘Baymount sells excess land for $5.5M’ is an item in the 3/20/08 Bellville Intelligencer that also states: “An initial deposit of $250,000 has been received which is refundable until such time as Baymount breaks ground on the new Quinte Raceway and Exhibition”.

‘Casino relies heavily on local gamblers, says watchdog group’ is a 3-page article in the 3/22 Brockville Recorder and Times that contains this interesting paragraph: “Eastern Ontario residents from Brockville to Kingston are by far the most active patrons of the 1,000 Islands Charity Casino and their frequency of attendance is increasing, according to numbers released by the local group Casino Watch”. We admire this ‘Watch Dog’. As far as we know they form the only group that’s still active in the province!

Atlantic Canada

‘ALC yanks iconic image after Mahone Bay churches object to gaming promo” is a line in The 3/19/08 Halifax Herald, reporting that none of the denominations whose buildings are in the picture – the Evangelical Lutheran, the Anglican, and the United Church - allow lotteries, raffles, and games of chance or bingos to raise money for church events. We cannot resist this quote: “”There’s something offensive to use the image of the churches from a theological, practical and humanitarian point of view,” Mr. Kristenson said. He said he has seen first-hand the damage caused by gambling. When he was serving in Alberta, he worked with a family in which the wife gambled away all the family’s money. “The husband committed suicide. That’s as bad as it gets.”” He is one of the ministers whose church building was in the picture the ALC misused.

United States

‘Misinformation about slot machines abounds’, an article in The 3/14/08 Digital Chicago by Gaming columnist John G. Brokopp – why does he use the hypocritical word ‘gaming’- leaves this reader of his article with the impression that he is a promoter of gambling as a form of entertainment. We don’t need writers like that

United Kingdom

A Reuters item found in The 3/20/08 Vancouver Sun writes that American casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson won $8M (£4M) damages in London’s High Court on Wednesday after the Daily Mail accused him of “cut-throat, ruthless and despicable” business practices in a 2-page story published in May 2005.

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