Responsible Gambling Awareness Week in P.G.
Monday, January 7, 2013 @ 4:47 AM
Prince George, B.C. – This is Responsible Gambling Awareness Week in Prince George, one of five B.C. communities which will be hosting such an event this month.
The BC Lottery Corporation is working with the United Way and the City of Prince George this week, to help dispel some myths about gaming and assist those who need support for problem gambling.
Lori Cruddas of the United Way in Prince George, says the myth busting will involve an interactive kiosk where people can learn about the odds of winning. "One of the myths is ‘I have been playing this machine for a while, I have to stay on it because it will pay back soon’ and that simply isn’t true."
Oddly enough, the BCLC is promoting three “contests” to get people engaged with this full week of responsible gambling messages. There is a contest on twitter, where if you re-tweet the BCLC message your twitter account is entered in a draw for a $50 dollar Visa Gift Card. Then there’s a contest on facebook which asks you to submit a photo depicting “What Does Responsible Gambling Mean to You” again, the prize is a $50 Visa Gift card. The third contest is a ballot dropped into the drum at the BCLC booth at the open house, which is set for the College of New Caledonia on Thursday from 3-5 p.m. The prize for that contest is a Samsung tablet worth about $350.00
Cruddas says the kiosk won’t be set up in just one spot “They are going to travel it (the kiosk) around, and they worked with us to find out where people would most likely be throughout the week” says Cruddas. “It’s all about the prevention of problem gambling.”
The Kiosks will be at the Brunswick Senior Activity Centre today from 10 am to 2pm .
Here is the schedule for the Kiosk for the balance of the week:
January 8 – 9am – 4pm: Kiosk at UNBC Campus
January 9 – 3pm – 7pm: Kiosk at Costco
January 10 – 10am – 5pm: Kiosk at College of New Caledonia
January 11 – 10am to 2pm: Kiosk at Wal-Mart
January 11 – 5:30pm- 8pm: Kiosk at Cougars game
January 12 – 9am – 3pm: Kiosk at Pine Centre Mall
January 9 – 3pm – 7pm: Kiosk at Costco
January 10 – 10am – 5pm: Kiosk at College of New Caledonia
January 11 – 10am to 2pm: Kiosk at Wal-Mart
January 11 – 5:30pm- 8pm: Kiosk at Cougars game
January 12 – 9am – 3pm: Kiosk at Pine Centre Mall
There will also be events aimed at the community leaders, to explain to them what a community that approaches gambling in a responsible way looks like and what the resources are although there is no word of possible funding commitments to sustain those support programs.
At the end of this month, the BCLC is holding a special conference on responsible gambling "New Horizons in Responsible Gambling" in Vancouver. Conference attendees will have the opportunity to hear first-hand what responsible gambling really means to players; learn about current ideas in prevention and response; and share best practices with responsible gambling colleagues and professionals from around the globe.
Comments
At the end of the day, everyone is responsible for their own actions. The vast majority of people who gamble do not become problem gamblers. Nobody is holding a gun to anyone’s head and forcing them to buy that lottery ticket or enter a casino.
I wonder how many they will get the point across to at the Cougars game? LOL. They would probably get more people at the library.
Anybody wanna bet that this won’t work? A PR stunt. They love you and want you to think you were “entertained” while leaving the casino or lottery booth with empty pockets.
“Anybody wanna bet that this won’t work”
We will never know, will we?
In order to find out whether it will work, one would have to have statistics … and they do have some …. and then determine whether the number of people who gamble in excess has increased, decreased or stayed the same.
Then comes the hard part.
If there was a decrease, what part did the program play?
If there was an increase, what part did the program play? …. yes ….. if it is viewed as a PR exercise, then it should have caused an increase if it was a successful PR stunt.
That is just a start of a few examples.
The best way to determine success may actually be through anecdotal questions from those who have sought relief from problem gambling and ask them if this sort of program would sway anyone who is a gambler that has not yet become a problem gambler but is about to be.
So how about those people who gamble on real estate, stocks, collector items intended to gain in value for future selling.
Plain old life from day to day is a gamble. Wake up in the morning dead and it ruins your whole day. IMO.
Responsible Gambling is an oxymoron if I ever heard one.
The Casino in Prince George earned approx $56 Million last year. Seems there were a lot of people being responsible, and losing thier money to support the Government, and BCLC.
Anyone who thinks that having these Casino’s around is good for the Country, or good for anything else is just naive.
If there wasnt money to be made by the Government they wouldnt be in this business. It just that simple. If they Government makes millions, then citizens lose millions.
This money could be better spent on other endeavours like, swimming, hockey games, golf, going to the lake, etc; etc;.
Gambling is a 100% negative endeavour.
I guess so, but hey! They said you were ‘entertained”. Ain’t that enough?
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