24-hour gambling in the cards for casinos

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This article was published 17/11/2016 (3480 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries is ready to roll the dice on 24-hour gambling, but not everyone thinks they’ll strike it lucky.

The Crown corporation will begin a pilot project Dec. 2 that will see the two provincially run casinos in Winnipeg — McPhillips Station Casino and Club Regent Casino — open 24 hours on Fridays and Saturdays for the next four months.

Acting CEO Peter Hak told the Free Press the change in operating hours falls in line with other provinces such as Ontario and Alberta.

“We always evaluate what other casinos are doing and what the market demands are, and usually on the weekends we see a fair amount of people in our building, and we sort of force them to go home,” Hak said.

“Since they are already in the building, we want to see what the test will be if we stay open 24 hours,” he said.

Currently, both casinos are open from 9:30 a.m. to 3 a.m. Monday to Sunday.

The likely outcome, if the pilot is successful, would give all casinos in Manitoba — including the three First Nations casinos — the option to be open 24 hours. It’s not clear if, or when, three First Nation gaming centres and the Shark Club Gaming Centre near the MTS Centre will be included.

The project raised the alarm of Tracie Afifi, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Manitoba. She has studied the factors that lead to problem gambling extensively. Dave Grift of the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba voiced similar concern.

“If the casino is open 24/7, and they have that desire they need to go gamble, they can do it (with this pilot project),” Afifi said. “Who are the people who are gambling at four in the morning? Not everyone who is gambling at four in the morning is going to have a problem, but perhaps it is the people who are using gambling in an unhealthy way who will be the ones they are catering to.”

Grift said the agency was not consulted by Liquor & Lotteries before it moved forward with the pilot project.

A spokeswoman for MLL said “social responsibility” staff members conducted an assessment of the possible social harms a 24-hour model could create.

“The biggest risk of 24-hour operation is that you don’t have that forced break for some people, where they have to get up and leave. At that point, they are able to realize, maybe I do need to take a break from this and so on,” Grit said.

A 2010 research paper written by Afifi and other experts in the area recommended, from a public-health policy, casinos should reduce hours to curb problem gambling.

In September, Premier Brian Pallister publicly shot down the idea of Aseneskak Casino on Opaskwayak Cree Nation moving from its location near The Pas to Winnipeg. He told reporters, “We’re over-serviced. We’re the most over-serviced province in the country of Canada when it comes to gambling.”

Pallister said Thursday he does not “believe gambling is a solution to problems and might be a creator of them,” but added he is trying to build a good relationship with Manitoba’s Crown corporations and it isn’t his place to force MLL’s hand on the decision.

“In a free and open society, it is very likely not right for an elected official such as myself to try and prescribe my moral guiding mechanisms to everyone else,” Pallister said.

A recent study commissioned by the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and the province noted Manitoba’s gambling market is saturated, with little room for growth. That might be what’s behind the pilot project, Afifi said.

“The goal of something like this would be to generate more revenue, and I am sure it will,” she said. “Simple math: the casino will open longer, people will gamble, and the casino will make more money.

“So if they are going to pilot-test this and see if it is successful, you have to sort of ask: how is success defined? Is it just defined by increased revenue, and is there going to be any measurement or investigation into the potential harms of doing something like this?”

A MLL spokeswoman said in an email, “The success of this pilot will be measured by the revenue we earn.”

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca

Rules of the 24-hour game

• Club Regent Casino and McPhillips Station Casino will be open 24 hours on weekends starting Dec. 2, when the doors will open at 10 a.m. and close at 3 a.m. Monday. On long weekends, the doors will close Tuesday at 3 a.m. The casinos will not be open 24 hours on Christmas weekend.

• All slots will be operational, and table games will be available as demand warrants. There will be no liquor service after 2 a.m. McDonald’s will be open 24 hours during this pilot project.

• Advisers at GameSense centres are at the casinos from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. daily to provide information on how to play responsibly and to offer support and referrals when needed. They are on call from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Senior management staff at the casinos are also well-trained in social responsibility if customers require assistance.

 

— source: Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries