A casino! That’s what we need.
As you look around at our requirements here on the North Shore, you might ask yourself: “Don’t we need more affordable housing? How about better transportation? How about a third crossing?”
And I suppose the last thing you might ask yourself is: “Don’t we need a casino?” especially because there’s nothing more useless devised by humankind, unless you find it useful to induce pensioners to throw their pension down a hole, or if you’re looking for a way to launder money.
But North Vancouver city council is infatuated with casinos, nonetheless. And I mean infatuated. Coun. Holly Back, for example, has been quoted in these pages that casinos “actually can be quite beautiful.”
Sorry, Holly, Emerald Lake is beautiful. The Mona Lisa is beautiful. “Circus! Circus!” is not beautiful.
Beauty, I suppose, is in the eye of the beholder, but I suspect what the city really finds beautiful is the 10 per cent of the cut it gets for hosting a casino – which could amount to more than $2 million a year.
It doesn’t appear to matter that the vigorish or whatever you want to call it is mainly a tax on the poor. You know, those people who don’t have any money and are tempted to spend what little they have trying to get rich playing the slots. (According to the 2014 B.C. Problem Gambling Prevalence Study, 18.9 per cent of gamblers with household incomes under $30,000 are classified as at-risk or problem gamblers.)
Memo to the poor: it’s not going to happen. You have a better chance of being struck by lightning.
As for money laundering, not to worry! The B.C. government recently established a 22-member police group to keep organized crime out of the province’s casinos. There may only be seven full-time park rangers across B.C.’s vast parklands, but the casino problem requires a 22-person task force. Hmm.
The real gambling addict is the province, which rakes in more than $1 billion per year from casinos. No wonder the B.C. Lottery Corporation is actively pursuing the North Shore to expand. So far, only North Van City has answered the call, voting to make a non-binding expression of interest before the July 15 deadline. Both North Vancouver District and West Vancouver have taken a pass, as has the Squamish Nation, which may be holding out for its own casino.
As I write, we’ve yet to hear from the other invitee, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation. I can only hope they will join the refusniks.
I may have a bee in my bonnet about casinos. My wife, who enjoys a flutter now and then, sure thinks so. She wonders why I’m so quick to let revenue from “gaming” go to Burnaby or Richmond instead of North Vancouver, where it will no doubt go for much-needed social services.
I guess what really gets under my skin is the sheer manipulative greed of the casino setup, especially slot machines. Dr. Gerald Thomas, with the Centre of Addictions Research of British Columbia, put it this way: “One of the inducements in high-risk machines, for example, is near misses,” he told a reporter.
“So you have three little things turning there, and all of a sudden it will show you that you’ve almost got the three, you’ve got two out of the three. Those kinds of inducements are designed to keep people at these machines and playing.”
If you’re comfortable with your government luring people to overcome their good sense and self-discipline, then get thee to a casino.
The final bee in my bonnet is that once government got its hooks in, the term magically evolved from “gambling,” which came with baggage and lots of it, to “gaming,” which sounds sporting, like lawn bowling or croquet. Talk about manipulative.
I realize I’m a voice crying in the wilderness. In terms of sheer numbers, alcohol is a much bigger problem and there are plenty of opportunities on the North Shore for alcoholics to pursue their poison.
There’s an argument that says the minority shouldn’t be allowed to spoil it for majority. And the odds are most people can enjoy adult pleasures such as gambling and alcohol without circling the drain.
So, says the government: know your limit, play within it.
And if you don’t or can’t, we’ll take our cut anyway.
Journalist and communications consultant Paul Sullivan has been a North Vancouver resident since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of Madonna. He can be reached via email at p.sullivan@breakthroughpr.com.
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