A Delta woman knows all too well the allure of gambling.
She admits she was out of control, but when she tried to help herself by using a program set up by the B.C. Lottery Corporation to keep compulsive gamblers out of casinos, she says she was still welcomed with open arms.
Joyce Ross lives in her best friend’s basement suite. She’s been here since she lost her home, business and life savings to gambling.
“I lost my house, I lost my self respect and initially I felt totally hopeless,” says Ross.
Desperate, Joyce turned to a provincial program called self-exclusion, essentially banning herself from gambling.
Staff would automatically expel her if she tried to enter a casino. If she violated the self-exclusion, she faced charges, even a fine. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.
“I really believed it would save me, but it turned out to be quicksand, they welcomed me back by name, with open arms and it just went downhill from there.”
In the three years that she banned herself, Joyce figures she lost about $330,000 at the casino. So, she decided to sue B.C. Lottery Corporation and two gaming companies.
“It’s not really much of a conundrum. The business of running a casino is just that, a business. Although the government may set up programs to protect society — it doesn’t work when you have a business running them and enforcing them,” says Ross.
Joyce’s lawyer took her case three years ago, and has amassed boxes of material. The outcome could be precedent setting — and her lawyer hopes, the beginning of real change that could help thousands of addicted gamblers.
“The provincial government says they don’t owe a duty of care to Ross and all other addicted gamblers from the harms suffered from their self-exclusion program,” says her lawyer Jim Hanson of Hanson Wirsig Matheos.
A decision could come anytime, but Joyce, who doesn’t gamble anymore, and her lawyer both feel there’s a solution that could help today.
“A simple suggestion that’s applied all over the world is a card check system. If you’re an excluded gambler, you’re immediately identified,” says Hanson.
“But the fact that 30 to 50 per cent of revenues come from the addicted may shed some light on why that policy is not implemented.”
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