Rolling the dice

By Tyler Olsen - Vernon Morning Star - December 21, 2007

Lucky us. The City of Vernon and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation are teaming up to bring us a new, expanded casino. As a Crown corporation, the BCLC is supposedly tasked with overseeing lottery business in this province for the benefit of every one in British Columbia. And as we all know, there is nothing that enhances the social fabric like a good flip of the cards or pull of a slot-machine handle. Let the good times roll.While not a fan, I honestly believe the BCLC is the best way to deliver gambling in the province. Prohibition doesn't work, that much is clear. If they really want to, people will gamble, toke, drink or fight, whether in another jurisdiction or illegally in a smoky basement. Banning lotteries would be hypocritical when I believe that other sorts of prohibition likely do more harm than good. But some moderation would be nice.

The BCLC has turned into a huge cash cow for the province and local municipalities. And yet, while most crown corporations could use a more profit-oriented mentality, the lottery corp is one that should be treated less like your average profit-driven enterprise. A dinosaur-obsessed six-year-old kid hopped up on sugar could make money running the BCLC. The focus of the corporation should be providing a safe outlet for residents' gambling urges, containing the threat of addiction and, maybe, making some change on the side. That would take at least a grade-four education which, maybe, is why I have to turn on the TV and suffer through BCLC commercials.

“Think winning the lottery is as likely as getting struck by lightning?,” one commercial asks. “Well, meet some recent winners!” It then scans through a range of smiling men and women holding huge cheques with six-figure prize winnings. Of course, the commercial doesn't actually answer its original question.The fact is, the odds of being struck by lightning in one's lifetime is significantly better than striking it rich in the lottery at any one time, although it’s also true that the more you plunk down on the 6/49 or other draws, the more likely you are to win. Even so, spending $10,000 throughout your lifetime still wouldn't bring your odds below one in 2000. Suddenly Enron stock isn’t such a bad idea. Meanwhile, studies in Ontario have shown that 35 per cent of revenues come from less than five per cent of gamblers. Which brings us back to the question of why there are advertisements for the lottery on TV – and why the advertisements are misleading people into thinking the lottery could be a half-decent bet.

Does anyone growing up outside of a hermit cabin in the Kootenays reach gambling age not knowing that the 6/49 is out there? Of course not. It’s pure marketing and product promotion, not unlike what will take place with our new casino in Vernon, from which the city and province will divvy up the profits. Yes, it will provide a significant amount of revenue. But if we need more people to be throwing more money down the black hole of gambling, then maybe we have our own problem. Because unfortunately, gambling doesn't work as a progressive tax, extracting more from those with higher incomes. It's an indiscriminate levy on unreasonable hopes and dreams. Seniors on pensions, single mothers and lonely middle-aged men yank on that one-armed bandit hoping it may pull them out of their doldrums. They roll those dice hoping to escape and they pick up that Super 7 ticket dreaming of mansions, butlers and miniature purebred dogs.The only safe bet, though, is that they, and our society, will lose.

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"Casinos and prostitutes have the same thing in common; they are both trying to screw you out of your money and send you home with a smile on you face." -VP Pappy

"I hope to break even this week. I need the money." -Veteran Las Vegas Player