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9/29/2008: Gambling Watch Canada Network Newsletter
Volume 10 Issue 006 September 29, 2008
Horseracing
In Ontario it is very obvious that lovers of horseracing are worrying about their future. On 9/24/08 an article in the Niagara Falls review urges the province to get active on the $300-million redevelopment proposal surrounding the Fort Eie’s track property, owned and operated by Nordic Gaming Corporation. Two days later this paper mentions that track again, and on that same date the Toronto Star publishes a six-page article giving the horse names and the amounts of the purses of Woodbine’s thoroughbred selections. On 9/27/08 the Canadian Gambling News and Issues writes that Fort Erie’s Future Is In Doubt Again while the Niagara Falls Review says that the anxiety is growing over Erie’s racetrack’s future.
On 9/28/08 an article in the Edmonton Sun reports, Things looking up for harness racing in Alberta
Finance
Even Las Vegas hit by downturn, a 9/25/08 Windsor Star item, states that Las Vegas these days has resorts that are discounting and even giving away room nights just to attract enough people to keep their roulette wheels and slot machines spinning.
Canada
Canadians losing more to gambling, 9/27/08 Canwest News Service;
Canadians contributed five times more to government coffers through gambling last year than they did 15 years before, a new Statistics Canada report shows, with residents of the Prairie provinces spending the most. Revenues from lotteries, casinos, slot machines and video lottery terminals soared to $13.6 billion in 2007 from $2.7 billion in 1992. The 2007 revenues were up from $13.3 billion in 2006. The average Canadian spent $524 courting Lady Luck last year, ranging from a low of $121 in the territories to a high of $890 in Alberta, followed by Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
Alberta
Bookkeeper jailed for $48,000 fraud is once again an example of crime caused by what our governments call ‘gaming’. It reports that Brenda Westerson, 47, wrote fraudulent cheques to feed a gambling addiction before and after her employment at Superior Power Products. The motivation for the crime was to fund her serious problem with her VLT addiction. She’ll be jailed for one year and is ordered to make full restitution, noting she has not yet paid back any of the stolen funds.
Alberta gamblers biggest spenders in Canada is an item related to the Canada section. It reports that Alberta gamblers spend an average of $890 a year on everything from scratch tickets to bingo cards, the highest amount in the country, well above Canada’s $524 average.
British Columbia
Slot machines in question, an item in The 9/25/08 Vernon Morning Star reports that the city council has adopted a bylaw that would limit the number of slot machines in the community to 300, although plans for the new Lake City Casino outlet, which is under construction, called for 400 machines. The B.C. Lottery Corporation, which owns the machines, isn’t sure if it will only install 300 slots or go ahead with 400.
Ontario
Casino Windsor gets a sparkling update as it becomes part of the Caesars chain an item in The 9/21/08 Cleveland Plain Dealer, reminds us of the fact that the Ontario Lottery Corporation, a government entity, spent more than $400 million into the Windsor casino as a dramatic reaction to competition from across the river in Detroit, where three casinos opened in this decade.
‘Rama band loses fight to keep 250M casino profit’ is an item in The 9/23/08 Windsor Star.
The Mnjikaning (Rama) First Nation did not have a valid contract entitling it to an ongoing 35 per cent share of profits at the casino, said Ontario Superior Court Justice Arthur Gans. The judge ruled in favour of the Chiefs of Ontario, which represents more than 130 native bands in the province, that these funds were to be shared among all First Nations.
‘OLG Slots at Western Fair Raceway (in London) celebrates ninth anniversary’ is an article in the 9/26/08 Sault Ste. Marie paper. (CNW Group) It talks of complimentary cake and coffee on the gaming floor at 11 a.m on Sunday and;
…the 311 direct jobs with an annual payroll of more than $14 million, which helps to support the community through the purchase of goods and services. As the host community for OLG Slots at Western Fair Raceway, the municipality has received more than $31.6 million in non-tax gaming revenue since the facility opened.
Casino scam spanned Canada-US border, an article in The 9/27/08 Brantford Expositor, reports one of the criminal consequences related to gambling: cheating.
No one knew about the Tran Organization; it then gives a 2-page story about the gang that cheated loads of money.
‘In Brantford, they got away with just $70,000 before the police shut down the operation, but at Casino Rama the gang took more than $2 million. In the U. S., the take was more than $30 million.’
Quebec
When the Montreal Gazette reports on the figures given in the Canada section, it adds that Quebecers spend $450 on average per year.
I cannot resist quoting some more of this article:
The average Canadian spent $524 courting Lady Luck last year, ranging from a low of $121 in the territories to a high of $890 in Alberta, followed by Saskatchewan and Manitoba. “This is a massive amount of money, but when you really get down to it, it’s also a massive amount of harm that’s being done to individuals, families and communities,” said Doug Little, an Ottawa resident who wrote a book chronicling the gambling addiction that cost him his marriage and job more than a decade ago. “Of that $13.6 billion that’s made … it’s actually the losses of the gamblers. That’s the reality.”
I’m tempted to add my ‘AMEN’ to this.
New Brunswick
Horsemen offered piece of VLT program, an article in The 9/23/08 Telegraph Journal, writes that the NB government is betting the province’s harness racing industry can become sustainable and self-sufficient with the help of revenue from 150 video-lottery terminals. News like that makes us wonder if that province’s politicians have forgotten that VLTs belong to the most satanic gambling devices. They are well-known like that by people who have lost relatives to suicides related to gambling with these instruments!
The next day this paper in The future’s a gamble notes that ‘gaming bar’ owners worry about their businesses after harness racing industry gets 150 of their very addictive VLTs.
Another day later this paper writes that the Exhibition Association of the City and County of Saint John sees this Video Lottery plan as A window of opportunity for new recreational facilities for the community. And it could be great news for the recreation file for the city and surrounding communities!
On 9/26/08 the Times & Transcript in Slots or VLTs What’s the difference? reports that the opening of Casino New Brunswick in Moncton in 2010 will inject 600 slot machines into the province’s gambling mix, that the government has also announced that it will cut the number of video lottery terminals across the province from 2,650 to 2,000 by 2010, and that, according to a top industry representative, the average player could never tell the difference between the two gambling machines.
Beyond our Border
Detroit casinos tie up smoking ban in state House, an item in The 9/23/08 Michigan Live LLC, writes that a prohibition on all indoor workplace smoking failed Tuesday to gather the 56 House votes necessary to send it to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who would sign it into law. A day later this paper reports that Detroit’s new mayor said a smoking ban should include an exemption for Detroit’s three casinos.
International
Online gambling takes its toll, an article in the 9/23/08 Aftenposen, a Norwegian paper says:
Top community officials are among those who unwittingly lent large sums of money to finance a Norwegian bishop’s son’s gambling debts’. The bishop’s son, meanwhile, is just one of thousands of Norwegians who have a serious problem with online play. Online gambling has left thousands of Norwegians with heavy debts.
J. Deviet