Thursday, December 21, 2006
Real crime explosion is around B.C. casinos and "gaming centres" ... as compared to?
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Gambling enforcement branch no match for the criminals casinos attract
Paul Willcocks
Special to the Sun
October 23, 2006
VICTORIA - Forget about criminal activity on the streets. The real crime explosion is around B.C. casinos and "gaming centres," where investigations of serious offences like money-laundering and loansharking more than doubled last year.
The province's Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch reports it launched 3,414 investigations last year, up 36 per cent from the year before. The number of investigations launched into activities linked to organized crime -- like money-laundering and loansharking -- more than doubled, to 235 cases.
Organized criminals like casinos because they offer so many opportunities ..... snip .....
Solicitor-General John Les is in charge of the gaming branch, which deals with crime and gambling addiction. He's also responsible for the B.C. Lottery Corp., which has a business plan that calls for increasing the number of gamblers and the average amount each person loses.
About 2.2 million British Columbians gambled regularly last year. The plan is to persuade another 235,000 to start betting regularly by next year. (Based on conservative estimates, more than 9,000 of those people will see their lives messed up because of a gambling problem.) .... snip .....
But more than 2,000 investigations into criminal activity last year produced only 11 Criminal Code charges. More than 650 reports of Gaming Control Act violations produced -- for the second year -- not a single charge under the act.
You can't blame the Liberals for being embarrassed by all this. They were elected on a promise to halt gambling expansion, and have so far more than tripled the number of slots. Krueger even accurately predicted the "huge increase" in crime and opportunities for gangs.
Which makes their failure to deal with the problem all the more inexcusable.
willcocks@ultranet.ca
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
Complete column is at: www.canada.com/vancouversun/columnists/story.html?id=
72efe1b4-c81b-439b-b425-046c5d8a610&p=2
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.
Gambling enforcement branch no match for the criminals casinos attract
Paul Willcocks
Special to the Sun
October 23, 2006
VICTORIA - Forget about criminal activity on the streets. The real crime explosion is around B.C. casinos and "gaming centres," where investigations of serious offences like money-laundering and loansharking more than doubled last year.
The province's Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch reports it launched 3,414 investigations last year, up 36 per cent from the year before. The number of investigations launched into activities linked to organized crime -- like money-laundering and loansharking -- more than doubled, to 235 cases.
Organized criminals like casinos because they offer so many opportunities ..... snip .....
Solicitor-General John Les is in charge of the gaming branch, which deals with crime and gambling addiction. He's also responsible for the B.C. Lottery Corp., which has a business plan that calls for increasing the number of gamblers and the average amount each person loses.
About 2.2 million British Columbians gambled regularly last year. The plan is to persuade another 235,000 to start betting regularly by next year. (Based on conservative estimates, more than 9,000 of those people will see their lives messed up because of a gambling problem.) .... snip .....
But more than 2,000 investigations into criminal activity last year produced only 11 Criminal Code charges. More than 650 reports of Gaming Control Act violations produced -- for the second year -- not a single charge under the act.
You can't blame the Liberals for being embarrassed by all this. They were elected on a promise to halt gambling expansion, and have so far more than tripled the number of slots. Krueger even accurately predicted the "huge increase" in crime and opportunities for gangs.
Which makes their failure to deal with the problem all the more inexcusable.
willcocks@ultranet.ca
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
Complete column is at: www.canada.com/vancouversun/columnists/story.html?id=
72efe1b4-c81b-439b-b425-046c5d8a610&p=2
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Comments:
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Gambling is part of the Provincial Liberal's way to collect money from the folks who, any minute now, will be getting a big win. They usually don't get a big win, many are addicted and Gordo and his gang could care less. The fact the gang wasn going to stop the icrease in gambling is just one more item Gordo sort of lost as the need for money got bigger
# posted by 
: December 23, 2006 at 10:13 a.m.
: December 23, 2006 at 10:13 a.m.
Wilcox suggests in a article in the T/C today that if a person spends x number of dollars until the age of 65 and now and again wins, he would get there with a small amount of profit. Put the same amount in a GIC and at 65 would have a lot more than the gambling route. Not being a betting person I would go Paul's way for sure. But lots of folks fall for the lure of instant gratifcation and most never get there.
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# posted by : December 24, 2006 at 3:49 p.m.
: December 24, 2006 at 3:49 p.m. << Home
