Gaming players all in for Calgary summit

They’re the one-armed-bandit kings, the masters of poker, blackjack and Texas hold ’em.

But the 1,200 delegates and invited speakers gathering in Calgary this week at Stampede Park are no gamblers. They’re betting on a sure thing: one of the fastest-growing businesses in the world today.

For the first time, Calgary is hosting the annual Gaming Summit, the Canadian gaming industry’s biggest annual event. Casino operators, suppliers and industry players from all over North America gather each year to see and hear about the latest innovations, products and developments in the constantly evolving world of gambling.

“We attract quite a cross-section to our event,” Paul Burns, vice-president of the Canadian Gaming Association, says Monday at the start of the three-day conference.

“This is an industry that continues to grow, and is growing in different ways,” Burns says. “We see a lot more non-gaming amenities now to enhance the experience, such as hotels, spas and other entertainment offerings.”

Over the three days, delegates can view more than 88 exhibits featuring new products, as well as attend workshops that deal with everything from bingo to problem gambling.

“We’re in the business of gaming, but we want to promote responsible gaming,” says Burns, who acknowledges the $14-billion industry — which he says employs more than 135,000 Canadians from coast to coast — has long been the Rodney Dangerfield of legally sanctioned vices.

“It raises money for government and charities all over the country,” says Burns. “We are very open and transparent, and focus on all the issues surrounding our industry.”

While much of the chatter this week will revolve around how to maximize profits, some presenters are focused on attacking the negative effects of gaming. One product on display, created by the Nova Scotia Gaming Corp. and called SafetyCheck, is touted as the world’s first computer filtering software for gaming websites.

“Teenagers are three times more likely than adults to visit offshore gaming websites,” says the corporation’s Margaret Mc-Gee. “Our mandate is to build a responsible gaming industry.”

Speaking of online gaming, I admit it caught me by surprise to see a session on online gaming. Isn’t that illegal, I ask Burns, in Canada and the United States?

In fact, it’s slowly creeping its way into our lives, thanks to B.C. recently introducing online bingo; the B.C. and Atlantic lotteries also recently began selling online. According to Burns, it’s the elephant in the room that needs to be talked about, and fast. “Canadians are spending $1 billion on online gaming,” he says, “and virtually all of that is going to offshore companies.” By legalizing online gaming and regulating it, he argues, we’d be putting money back into the coffers here at home. “The customers are way ahead of government and regulators,” says Burns, who points to a recent Ipsos Reid poll showing a growing number of Canadians expressing an interest. “We think it’s high time Canada has that debate, so that is why we’re talking about it here.”