United Church Social Policy Positions

When church people speak to the gambling issue in Canada, they are often told: "That's your Methodism talking." Or "You just don't want people to have fun." Or "You have no right to say anything as long as church members play bingo or buy lottery tickets." Rather than reclaiming a much-needed Methodism, that kind of resistance has discouraged many from taking a hard look at what is really going on. Gambling today is no longer simply a matter of a raffle on a hand-made quilt in a church basement or the traditional bingo night for a local charity.

The gambling industry at the end of the 1990s differs from the industry in the late 1970s in several significant ways.

• Gambling was once low-tech and labour-intensive, with long waits between gambling events. Now it is a 24-hour-a-day activity, with instant results, repeat playing, and much higher losses.
• Gambling was once dominated by "mom-and-pop" operations, with limited reach. It is now an industry, dominated by huge operations with unlimited international reach.
• Gambling was once dominated by criminal organizations, controlled by government, and — in the US — quarantined in Nevada. Today it is promoted by government as another leisure activity and a positive contribution to "civil society" and community development.

Since the time when the basic church policies were adopted, the gambling industry has gone through an industrial revolution and a political revolution. In the political sphere, governments abandoned their responsibility to contain the spread of gambling and to regulate what little gambling was lawful in Canada. Instead, governments in North America have themselves been fueling the demand for a gambling boom.

The "industrial" revolution in the gambling industry was made possible by two important developments:

1. The invention of the electronic chip and the ability to make electronic transfers of money to anywhere on the globe;
2. The adoption of the organization and methods of international corporations by the big players in the gambling industry.

The significance of this part of the revolution is that what once was an underground or quarantined economy has been integrated into the above-ground economy. Thanks to major investments and promotion by governments, it is now a significant player in the economy as a whole.

The political revolution has been made possible by:

• The lifting of the quarantine on gambling in the United States, with the decision to allow states and aboriginal groups to run casinos and lottery schemes to generate revenue;
• The decision by Canadian governments to amend the Criminal Code to allow provincial lotteries and charitable casino gaming (1969) and to give greater authority to provinces (1985);
• The aggressive use of exemptions in criminal law to expand the number and types of gambling schemes.

These economic and political developments made the North American boom in gambling possible, particularly electronic gambling.

However, these developments would not have created Canada's current gambling boom had there not also been a revolution in public social responsibility. In a widely-publicized report, the Canada West Foundation described the revolution this way:

"When a stigmatized activity such as gambling becomes decriminalized, it requires an image make-over to attain an aura of respectability. By successfully linking legal gambling to the 'greater good' principle, governments changed what was once considered deviant behaviour into a widely tolerated activity....In an effort to transform negative public perception of gambling, governments promoted their legal gambling initiatives on the following grounds:

• the need to keep gambling dollars from migrating to other jurisdictions;
• the difficulty in enforcing the present gambling laws;
• a way to generate government revenues without raising taxes;
• a way to revive economically depressed areas;
• a way to stimulate tourism;
• a way to prevent the infiltration of organized crime; and
• a way to provide a revenue stream for popular social programs and worthy causes...." [2]

John Ralston Saul described the revolution in public morality in less measured terms:

"...I consider state gambling one of the most important philosophical questions of our day. If your governments are actively involved in attempting to corrupt you, you have a central philosophical problem — that is, if you believe you are living in a democracy....I'm not making a purist or ideological statement. I'm talking about a particular problem: the state as the organizer of, and profiteer from, gambling; the state funding the public good by corrupting the citizen...."[3]

The result is a rapidly growing gambling economy. Legal gambling in Canada amounts to a $20 to $27 billion industry.[4] In just four years, net gambling revenues[5] in Canada grew from $4.3 billion to $7 billion or a 64% growth (1992-1996). In Alberta alone, the increase was 85% in that same period. For governments, gambling revenues have become a new tributary to the government revenue stream in place of unpopular tax hikes. Therefore, it has become commonplace to call governments the most highly addicted of all the addicts in Canada.

2. "Gambling and the Public Interest?", Prof. Garry Smith and Jason Azmier. Canada West Foundation. Calgary, November 1997, pp 2-3.
3. John Ralston Saul, as quoted in "Canadian FundRaiser", Vol. 7, Num. 4, February 26, 1997, pp. 1-2.
4. "Gambling in Canada". National Council of Welfare. Ottawa, Winter, 1996, p. 1.
5. For purposes of their report, Canada West Foundation defined net gambling revenues as "total revenues less prizes and payouts."