BCLC manager says no problems with gaming centres

By Shaun Thomas The Northern ViewNov 22 2006 The Northern Review
Greg Walker, the Manager of Public Affairs for the British Columbia Lottery Corporation, was the guest speaker at the November 15 Chamber of Commerce Luncheon and used his time to discuss the gaming centre that is coming to town and to promote awareness of how lottery money is distributed in the province.
According to Walker, the new community gaming centre, one of six being constructed to address the decline in bingo participation in B.C., will put between $140,000 and $500,000 into city coffers and will include 16,000 square feet of gaming, entertainment and restaurant facilities, 10,000 square feet of conference facilities, and will have three to four thousand square foot patios on each floor to make the most of the view and attract people to the building. "If it doesn't look like a bingo hall then we know we are doing our job because we don't want it to look like a bingo hall. We want it to look like an entertaining place where people can go with their friends or go to meet people," he said. "The community gaming centre is a first class entertainment centre." And while he acknowledged that four per cent of people who gamble do develop problems with it and there are a number of services available for those people, he said communities with the centres already operating have not seen a problem. "I am often asked what the impact of these gaming centres is and I am pleased to say that in the five communities we are operating them in now, there is none." "RCMP officers are impressed with the security and surveillance we have in place, which is very stringent, and many will say the impact is none," he added. Last year, B.C. Lotteries had $2.27 billion in revenue, paid out $641.5 million in prizes, and $137.7 million went to over 5,000 charitable organizations in the province.