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Vice, Disease, Responsibility: A Whirlwind History

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1892

Criminal Code enacted Gambling provisions contained in a

section titled “Offences against religion, morals and public conveniences”.

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1900

Exemption for charities The first pivotal moment in Canadian

gambling history.

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1909-1910 The Miller Bill

Private Member’s Bill Sought to curtail the growing business

of betting on horse racing. Concern to eliminate gambling on and

off race tracks. Debated extensive in the House of

Commons and publicly before a Special Committee.

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Miller Bill

M.P. & spokesperson for anti-gambling coalition of Protestant Church groups that comprised the Moral and Social Reform Movement.

The same folks that brought us: Prohibition, Narcotic Laws, Sabbatarianism and Eugenics

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Miller Bill

Bill amended, unintended result – betting on race tracks became legal.

Legal Monopoly for 70 years of the 20th Century.

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World War One Betting at track halted for duration of

war. 1919 Royal Commission. Last hurrah for Moral Reform

Movement’s anti-gambling crusade. Race track betting reinstated.

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1925

Agricultural Fairs exempted Second pivotal moment in Canadian

gambling history.

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1930’s

Depression – a few calls for national lottery or sweepstakes to relieve the unemployed or to build hospitals.

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1950s

1954 Joint Committee of Senate & House of Commons on Capital Punishment, Corporal Punishment, and Lotteries.

Recommendation: No State Lotteries. Last genuine public consultations on

gambling in Canada.

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1969 & 1985

Governments authorized to conduct and or license lotteries and lottery schemes.

1985 – electronic games and the consolidation of Provincial authority.

Amendments enacted in the absence of public consultation.

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Post 1995 Proliferation

Varying interpretations of Criminal Code Provisions.

Intent of federal Code was to be national, consistent and uniform.

Balkanization of regulatory and operating regimes.

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Side Note:

Alberta quick to exploit the Code exceptions charities and agricultural.

Graft and Corruption evident in the establishment of casinos here in Edmonton in the late 1960s.

Contrary, to public opinion B.C. does not have the Canadian monopoly.

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Process of legalization

Represented a move away from a conception of gambling as a “vice”

Those who participated in gambling were no longer subject to a moral censure.

Involvement of charity and government regulation/operation destigmatizing forces.

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Disease

Proliferation of gambling through 1970s 80’s and into the 1990s began to provoke criticisms in Canada especially with the advent of hard-core gambling formats such as electronic gaming machines.

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Researchers and Research

Taken more seriously. Prevalence studies undertaken.

Gambling behaviour specialists - psychologists, psychiatrists, clinicians, sociologists and researchers - move to the centre stage of policy debates.

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Problem Gambling

And its negative impacts spur the call for more research and treatment services.

1992/93 no provinces committed resources to problem gambling.

By 1997/98 all provinces had.

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Disease…

Gambling as a health issue “outed” - to be taken seriously.

Persons who gamble excessively are generally seen as “sick” and in need of treatment.

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Responsible Gambling

Has very recently emerged as a unifying construct bringing governments, gaming industries, problem gambling therapists and the academic community together.

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Ontario, for example, The Canadian Foundation on Problem

Gambling (0ntario) est. 1983. Re-engineered as the Responsible

Gambling Council (Ontario) A non-profit, NGO funded by Ontario

Ministry of Health. Mandate: public awareness, prevention,

education in regard to problem gambling

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RGC advisory “partners”: Ministry of health & long-term care Ontario Problem Gambling hotline Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corp. Centre for Addiction & Mental Health Ontario Problem Gambling Research

Centre. Ontario Horse Racing Industry Assoc. Ontario Gaming Secretariat

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Strategic Alliances:

Between what once were strange bedfellows.

Now work toward the common goals of prevention, harm reduction, value systems, and quality of life.

Encouragement of “responsible gambling behaviours”.

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Government officials and gaming industry have new allies in the form of treatment experts and researchers.

Together the problematic aspects of excessive gambling are redefined under the rubric “responsible gambling”.

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Responsible Gambling

Entails a mixture of concerns focused on individual gamblers regarding moral fault, self-control, medical and social causation and therapeutic intervention.

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Responsible gambling agenda

Neutralizes such issues as accessibility of gaming, its expansion, its formats, and the profit motives of government and industry.

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Responsible Gambling paradigm

Transposes social problems affiliated with excessive gambling into individual problems and depoliticizes them.

To twist the words of C.Wright Mills: Public Issues remain Private Problems

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Conclusion

Public has tolerated the transformation of gambling’s status through the 20th century.

Public Support is provisional. Persistent treat: Corruption & Problem

Gambling.

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The Responsible Gambling paradigm Represents a set of “compromise

maneuvers” designed to facilitate and sustain the legitimacy of gambling at the start of the 21st Century.