As of right now the British Columbia Lottery Corporation is trying to figure out where to place the new casino in Victoria, but they should also be considering the Angus Reid poll that was just released which shows that most Canadians are actually concerned about the expansion of the gambling industry throughout Canada as well as the high level of government involvement. Of the participants of the survey, 26 percent cited that they know someone who is dealing with addictive gambling, with this person commonly being a family member or close friend. Of the problem gamblers, most have suffered a severe financial loss resulting from an addiction.
Back in the later part of July the BCLC had made an announcement that the winning bid for the new casino site went out to Victoria. This is planned on being the second largest casino in the region, which is only going to be out shined by the View Royal casino. Speaking of which, the View Royal Casino has plans to be upgraded in the near future which will add in a 600 seat theater, and 350 new games. Included with these plans will be some new dining experiences that will help bring in more customers to the gambling venue.
This seems very exciting for players, but it doesn’t bode well with all Canadians. In fact, 63 percent of the population feels as if government involvement in gambling organizations is actually a bad thing. Only a small fraction of survey participants at the low number of 9 percent feel that the government controlled expansion of the gambling industry is a good thing, and 38 percent actually think that there should be a reduction in gambling.
Despite this, the gambling industry has continued to expand throughout Canada, vastly due the massive amount of income that it bring individual operators and the government. Over the past year gambling has brought in about $14 billion in revenue for provinces. Of this total funding, only $6 million of this money has been used towards resolving the prominent issue of problem gambling.
This has been shown to be the biggest reason that so many people are against gambling expansion projects. The more convenient that gambling becomes the more people that are going to get involved, and very little of the added revenue is going towards problem gambling programs.
Back in 2013 there was a report released by the provincial health official Perry Kendall in which he cited that there needs to be more money devoted towards problem gambling. In the time span of 2002 to 2007, a span of 5 years, he cited that the number of problem gamblers had doubled while there had been very little change in the amount of funding helping to resolve the problem.
Gambling comes at a price, and more Canadians want operators to pay it before allowing for further expansion of the industry. Unless problem gambling is addressed it is unlikely that there is going to be a whole lot of continuing support, and the issue is only growing. Hopefully, regulators begin to take notice.
