EW08
T HE VA N C O U V E R C O U R I E R F R I D AY, FEBRUARY 11, 2011
opinion
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Casino horse has left the barn
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WEB POLL NATION Go to www.vancourier.com to vote Have you been sent to the doghouse for forgetting your partner on Valentine’s Day? Last week’s poll question: Is the projected $17 million in annual casino revenue to the city worth having a massive gambling complex downtown?
Yes 51 per cent No 39 per cent This is not a scientific poll.
Pick your cliché for those lately waking up to the fact that Vancouver city council is on the verge of approving Western Canada’s biggest gambling den next to B.C. Place Stadium: The horse is already out of the barn; that bell has been rung; it’s a done deal.
On Wednesday evening, a hurriedly assembled coalition calling itself “Vancouver Not Vegas” pulled in a relatively feeble 125 folks—virtually all white—to the Chinese Cultural Centre to bemoan their dilemma and try to build opposition to attend city council’s Feb. 17 public hearing on the issue. Vancouver’s renowned architect Bing Tom told the audience he had just been recruited to the cause two or three days earlier and said it felt like “we are sleepwalking into this.” The casino will be run by Las Vegas-based Paragon Gaming Inc., which now operates a slew of casinos on native reserves south of the border and has a B.C. connection on its board. B.C. blogger Sean Holman first reported that T. Richard Turner was the head of the B.C. Lottery Corporation (BCLC) when he was offered and accepted shares in Paragon’s operations in Alberta, a matter Turner failed to disclose at the time. He has since left BCLC. But it’s certainly part of the reason folks have become skeptical of BCLC’s role as a regulator. There is also the fact that this is a regulator with a mandate to maximize government revenues from gambling. That would explain former NPA councillor Peter Ladner’s comment at the coalition meeting: “To put BCLC in charge of monitoring gam-
allengarr bling is like putting the Hells Angels in charge of monitoring crime.” Even though every city councillor, regardless of political stripe, has expressed concern about the impact of tripling the number of slot machines in downtown Vancouver, you get the impression they feel helplessly trapped. The decision they face to allow expanded gambling is part of a complex series of decisions that were initially triggered when a previous council (which included many on this council) agreed to allow the land next to the stadium to be rezoned. It was part of a plan by the province to develop land around the stadium to generate revenue that would pay for the half-billion dollar plus stadium renovation including the new roof. Council also agreed to give up all development cost levies and community amenity contributions most developers pay in these kinds of
circumstances. But it doesn’t end there. To build the casino and adjacent hotels, the provincial crown corporation, PavCo, arranged a swap with neighbouring Concord Development. PavCo would get more commercial usage and Concord would get more residential density for four condo towers it was planning. Then there is one more piece. In exchange for not including social housing units in those condo towers, Concord has agreed to give the city two pieces of property on nearby Hasting Street in the Downtown Eastside. The city hopes to use that land to build affordable housing. All of these deals—from fixing the stadium, building the casino and hotel, to Concord’s condos and the free land on Hastings—are intimately connected. They are a daisy chain of deals that would arguably collapse if any one link was removed. So while council wrings its hands over the prospect of increasing gambling and the likely possibility of the loan sharking, money laundering and addiction that goes with it, reversing that decision is a long shot at best. You can bet they are being squeezed as they have been in the past over decisions on increasing gambling. There’s the union representing workers and the gambling industry that has contributed to their campaign coffers while promising millions for city revenues. And let’s not forget the province, hungry as any addict for what the cash fix gambling means to their treasury. agarr@vancourier.com
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