FEATURE ARTICLE: BY BIV

Business in Vancouver December 9-15 2003 Issue 737
At large Peter Ladner

Interior monologues: to slot or not?

Usually it just looks like I'm talking to myself when actually I'm singing while I ride around on my bicycle. But last week the conversations got real as my head spun with arguments about whether to extend slot machine gambling into Vancouver.

Vancouver City Council decided last week to go to a public hearing on one of the two slot machine proposals for Vancouver: 600 machines (for now) at a consolidated Royal Diamond Casino (Gary Jackson)-Grand Casino (Len Libin) operation at the Plaza of Nations on False Creek, leading eventually to a permanent, bigger complex complete with bingo around Main and Terminal streets. The fate of the original slot initiative, at Hastings Park racetrack, will be decided as part of a six-month "community visioning" process for the park. Good luck. Expect blurred vision on this one. But for the Plaza of Nations site, the choice is clear: slots or no slots.

Which got me talking to myself.... Vancouver might as well have them now that every other municipality in B.C. allows them. The battle over slots has been lost. At least the city can enjoy the spoils-- an extra $10 million a year in revenues for the city. But we know that slot machines take gambling to a new level. They've been called the crack cocaine of gambling. Greater access in Vancouver will increase local gambling as well as displace it from the suburbs. Ah c'mon. Adults have to be free to choose their own sins. Millions of people enjoy gambling as entertainment and know how to contain their spending. We don't outlaw drinking just because some people become alcoholics.

But surely there have to be some limits. We don't allow video lottery terminals (VLTs) because they're more addictive and destructive than any other form of gambling. Actually we do allow VLTs. They're in some casinos under the label "Interactive Video Slots" where they're not as accessible as they would be in pubs and bars. I'm disappointed but not surprised. The government craving for lottery revenues is so intense that there are really no rules. There's every likelihood that once slots are allowed in the city, the lid will come off and they'll end up everywhere, in unlimited numbers. Hey, look at the revenues that are generated that can be put to good purposes.

In the Lower Mainland, with new slots opening in Richmond, New Westminster, Langley and elsewhere, citizens of Vancouver will never be more than 15 minutes away from a slot machine, so why not get some revenue into the city to deal with the fallout from problem gamblers who live in our city? That's like saying we should put beer and cigarettes in vending machines in our high schools because the kids will buy them somewhere else anyway, and the school could put the revenues to so many great uses. We're not dealing with kids. Adults can make their own choices. They can? Three to six per cent of the population are chronic gamblers.

They account for 30-plus per cent of revenues at casinos. Estimates of the measurable costs to society of their ruined lives range from $10,000 to $50,000 each, not counting the human tragedies of divorces, abuse, theft and fraud that typically haunt the lives of those around them. So we'll spend some of the proceeds on addiction counselling to help those people. Many of the charities who received part of the $126 million charity allotment from the B.C. Lottery Corporation (BCLC) last year help people in need, as does much of the $489 million spent by the provincial government. The BCLC spends $3.3 million on problem gambling -- 0.5 per cent of the $663 million it raises through gambling. How token can you get? You also have to look at the benefits of having slots to save the Hastings Park racetrack. That's 800 unionized jobs on the east side.

They would be very hard to replace. The Plaza of Nations casino would keep 400 jobs in Vancouver. Why should the city OK a 21-hour a day, seven-day-a-week slot complex in a park that is supposed to be turned into a neighbourhood amenity, just to save a failing business? It wouldn't do that with any other business, or in any other park. Nobody is asking for a subsidy. Woodbine is ready to invest $10 million to $25 million to create a classy venue. Hastings Park used to have Vancouver Canucks hockey games and three times as many horses racing as are there now. Look, with these two casinos you're opening up maybe $120 million in new business revenue in the city. How bad is that? But is that new business revenue really a gain?

For every dollar the municipality gets, the province will suck away $5, and the casino owners will take $4. That money will come out of spending on other forms of entertainment like restaurants, bars, sporting events and theatres. Gambling economists say that without significant tourist traffic, gambling only redistributes income from the poor to the rich. I'm out of time. See you at the public hearing in January.

We'll all be there.u
Peter Ladner is a Vancouver city councillor and vice-president, Business in Vancouver

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