By TODD COYNE, Vancouver Sun June 29, 2010
VANCOUVER - B.C.’s first nations plan to set up their own gambling authority to tap into the billion-dollar profits from the industry they say the B.C. government hasn’t been sharing. The proposed plan would end the province’s monopoly on gambling operations, building casinos in reserve communities across B.C. and creating a first nations regulator to oversee them. The B.C. government controls all commercial gambling operations under the B.C. Lottery Corp., making any private or otherwise unsanctioned gambling activities illegal. However, angered by what they say is the government’s failure to adequately share lottery revenues with their communities, B.C.’s first nations are challenging the BCLC’s jurisdiction on band land. Nearly all other provinces have agreements to share gambling revenues with first nations communities. But Chief Joe Hall, chairman of the B.C. First Nations Gaming Initiative and Chief of the Sto:lo Nation, says the B.C. government shares “far less than one per cent.” “I don’t even know how many decimals you’d need to identify [our share] but the number is closer to zero,” he said. Hall will spearhead the establishment of the new gambling authority at this fall’s First Nations Summit, in advance of which, he said, he has already received the support of 115 of the province’s 200-plus bands to move on the plan.
It would see B.C.’s only first nations-run casino, Cranbrook’s Casino of the Rockies, and two small gambling centres in Duncan and Squamish, joined by a host of large-scale casino operations focused on reserves nearest to urban centres. “Obviously geographic location is going to determine to a certain extent the potential success of the casino. So we’re looking at high-population areas,” Hall said.
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