NVD public hearing on issue set for April 19

IT LOOKS like the entire
North Shore will be a no-go
zone for video lottery terminals
(VLTs)" now that North
Vancouver District Council has
agreed to send to public hear-
ing a bylaw banning the gam-
bling machines.

The municipalities of Whistler,
West Vancouver and North
Vancouver City have already
approved, or are in the process of
considering, bylaws prohibiting the
introduction of VLTs.

“[t’s just another way of filling
the pockets of senior government at
the expense of local governments,”
said Coun. Emie Crist. ~

The provincial. government,

‘which has been working on plans
for the VLTs for over a year, wants
to introduce up to 5,000 machines
across B.C.

VLTs are computer-like games
that require the player to wager

- money by selecting a number.

Play is fast and opponents say

SPECIAL

Ends April 2

° ‘Speaker phone

NORTH VANCOUVER
DISTRICT COUNCIL
By Martin Millerchip

that this form of “quick-uction”
gaming is most addictive.

Greater Vancouver Regional
District mayors unanimously agreed
to seek prohibition of this form of
gambling on Feb, 24.

Harvey Pudwell of Citizens
Against . Gambling Expansion
(CAGE) clitims that even with limit-
ed gambling, 1.5% of . Lower
Mainland -residents (approximately
18,000) are “addicted problem gam-
blers.”

He told council Monday that the
number of gambling addicts will
increase by 50,000 with the new
VLTs, Pudwell claims that the cost
to the economy of each problem
gambler would be ‘$30-40,000 a
year in increased’ social, policing,
court and economic costs.”

Said Pudwell: “There's. nothing
good abcur legal gambling. ‘It cre-

ates no wealth, it adds nothing to
our economy.

“Iv destroys people, families,
neighborhoods and corrupts govern-
ments.”

District social planmer Mark -

Bostwick agreed that the promotion
of gambling by government is

‘extensive and “serves to increase the

propensity to gamble.”

Bostwick’s report to council con-
tinued: “Promotion of gambling
increases government revenue and
dependency on that source of rev-
enue and it also increases the
amount of problem or pathological
gambling among individuals.”

Coun. Pat Munroe in an emo-
tional and rambling speech made
the point that governments once
supported the opium trade because
there was money to be made.

Council deferred lobbying the
province for reconsideration of its
gambling policy until after the dis-
trict has concluded its own bylaw
process. The public hearing on the
bylaw prohibiting VLTs in the dis-
trict will be held April 19,

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