Some provinces don't keep gambling-death records By Dave Seglins CBC News
A CBC investigation into suicides in Canada has found a rise in deaths linked to gambling in Ontario. Twelve people troubled by gambling-related debt or addictions took their own lives in Ontario in 2006, the last year for which complete information is available. That was up from nine in 2005 and seven in 2004. "We take very seriously the incidence of any deaths that may be linked to gambling," said Rui Brum of the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. "Even one such death is a tragedy. "OLG is committed to responsible gaming. For example, OLG helps people get the assistance they need as soon as they ask for it." Quebec continues to have the highest number of gambling-related suicides with 22 cases reported in 2007, down from 26 in 2006.
"I'm suspicious of those numbers and think they are probably even higher," said Brian Yealland, a chaplain at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., and spokesman for the group Gambling Watch. "Ontario and Quebec probably have the same levels of suicides," Yealland told CBC News, raising questions about how coroners in each province investigate. "Whether a suicide is attributed in some way to gambling ... is partly to do with whether coroners specifically probe that suicidal person's background and lifestyle," said Yealland. Gambling critics have complained for years about inconsistency between provincial coroners in how seriously they treat problem gambling and the criteria they use to investigate a suicide. In 2003, chief coroners and medical examiners from all provinces and territories met at a conference in Iqaluit, where they pledged to develop a system to track the national scope of gambling-related deaths, given the rise of a $13-billion-a-year gambling industry run by governments.
On March 24, CBC Newsworld will air Playing the Machines, a documentary examining gambling addiction and suicide in Canada, focusing on the role of VLTs and other video gambling machines.
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