Christian Century: Canadian gambling targeted

EIGHTEEN Canadian church leaders have sent a joint letter to the nation's justice minister calling for an independent review of state-sponsored gambling in Canada. David Pfrimmer of the Lutheran Office for Public Policy said in late September, "What's remarkable is the unanimous ecumenical consensus among the Christian churches in Canada that state-sponsored gambling is bad public policy, bad economics and bad public morality,"

There are more than 50 casinos in Canada, and there are plans for more to be built. According to recent estimates, casinos in Canada earn some $1.75 billion a year (all figures in U.S. dollars). Federal and provincial governments take almost half that amount as taxes and duties. The national magazine Maclean's reported in May that the gambling industry's overall turnover is $19 billion a year. The magazine also said that the average Canadian household is gambling $840 each year.

The churches, which are members of the Canadian Council of Churches, the nation's principal ecumenical organization, demonstrated their united opposition to gambling by sending the letter to Anne McLellan, minister of justice and attorney general of Canada. "The promotion of state-sponsored gambling is at an all-time high in Canada," the church leaders wrote. They asked the government to establish an independent body "to review the social, economic and legal impact of legal and illegal gambling and charitable gaming in Canada, and to make recommendations regarding public policy."

The leaders also called for Canada's ten provinces to "place a moratorium on gambling expansion until such time as a public review has been completed and policy recommendations have been enacted." The letter noted that the church leaders understand the provinces' need for revenue. "However, it is difficult to recognize government's duty to uphold the public interests in provincial plans to increase the number of gamblers and the frequency with which they gamble and lose." The letter quotes William Thompson, professor of public administration at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, who summed up the basis for public concern: "Hell is knowing the truth about gambling after it is too late."

Said Bonnie Greene of the United Church of Canada, whose study of gambling, released earlier this year, prompted the ecumenical letter: "It's not church leaders who feel most strongly that gambling has become a real social threat. It's the people in the pews, the grass roots. They don't see gambling as only a question of personal morality any more, either. Now they're worried about what it's doing to their whole community, and to all the other parts of their economy."

Greene said she "was shocked out of my mind" when she visited a community of 12,000 in northwestern Ontario with various gambling venues and "saturation advertising" promoting them. Greene met a woman whose son took part in gymnastics. "He was not only required to pay $1,100 a year to participate, but was required to work at the organization bingo hall, or the parents would have to pay an additional $325."

Greene said that across Canada community programs are being eroded and people, young and old, are becoming immersed in the milieu of gambling. "It's eating its way into the small communities of our country." She added that each problem gambler is a burden, costing Canadian taxpayers $40,000 annually. "When you base your economic development plan on gambling, you're asking a community to make part of its living by persuading people to gamble more and lose more. Is that love of neighbor? Is that social justice?"

Remarked David Pfrimmer: "Governments have a job to do, and that job is to protect the common good, to make sure that the public interest doesn't get subverted. When gambling developers come to town with business plans in hand, local communities don't need the provincial and federal government singing out of the same book as the developers. There is a strong need to repair valuable social programs, hurt from slashes in recent years. And to restore a progressive and fair system of taxation that ensures we fulfill our social responsibilities to each other."

In their letter, the church leaders told Anne McLellan: "We do understand that it will be difficult for governments to overcome their dependency on gambling-generated revenues. But we do believe it is possible."

Among those signing the letter were Jim Boyles, general secretary, Anglican Church of Canada; Kenneth W. Bellous, executive minister, Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec; Daniel D. Rupwate, general superintendent, British Methodist Episcopal Church; Peter Schonenbach, general secretary, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops; Ray Elgersma, director, Canadian Ministries, Council of Christian Reformed Churches in Canada; Telmor Sartison, bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada; Peter J. Avgeropoulos, ecumenical officer, Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto; Seraphim, bishop of Ottawa and Canada, Orthodox Church in America; Stephen Kendall, principal clerk, General Assembly, the Presbyterian Church in Canada; and Jim Moerman, Reformed Church in America.