Introducing slot machines on B.C. Ferries could be risky business, B.C. gambling critics and counsellors said after the provincial government announced Monday it’s considering a pilot gaming project, among other changes to ferry services.
Transportation Minister Todd Stone said the pilot project would include slot machines in a secure, restricted area on the 95-minute Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen route — which carries about five million passengers a year. The revenues would go back into ferry services and ease the need for future fare increases.
“I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but it depends on who you get your money from,” said Gerald Thomas, a researcher at the Centre of Addictions Research of B.C. at the University of Victoria.
He said if the corporation targets tourists with gambling, they can bring money into the economy and not have to deal with most of the addictions problems. But giving more British Columbians access to a highly addictive form of gambling is dangerous.
“Then it’s not adding new money and you’re expanding access to a problematic form of gambling. Slots tend to be more addictive,” he said, citing B.C.’s already low track record on programs for gambling addicts.
Thomas helped write the Provincial Health Officer’s recent report on gambling in B.C. In it, data showed that the number of problem gamblers doubled in 2007 from 2002. Slot machines were the second-favourite form of gambling after playing the lottery.
In the past decade, gaming revenues in the province have nearly doubled to $2.1 billion from $1.1 billion, yet B.C. spends the lowest amount per capita of all the provinces on programs for problem gambling.
The provincial government hasn’t even responded to the warnings raised in the report, Thomas said.
B.C. Ferries said the idea for the slot machines came from “community engagement” in 2012.
If implemented, the slots would be administered by B.C. Lottery Corp., but operated by ferry employees.
“The easier it is to gamble, the more people gamble,” said Janice Graham, a Victoria psychotherapist who treats gambling addictions. “And gamblers lose financially for the most part — that’s how the system works.”
She said people already have easy access to gambling, online and in airports among other places, and that ferry slot machines will likely attract mostly occasional users, but could also trigger habitual gamblers. One concern she has is the social impact on families.
“Gambling is a socially-withdrawn activity. Ferry rides tend to be at the beginning or end of a journey and families or partners might get angry or hurt if someone is not being part of that,” she said.
New Democrat ferries critic Claire Trevena called the ferry changes disgusting and outrageous and said, “the icing on the cake is casinos on the ferries.”
“The ferry service is supposed to get people from point A to point B, cheaply and safely. This has gotten completely out of control,” she said. “Our ferries are not riverboat casinos. They are integral pieces of our province’s infrastructure and critical to our economy.”
