Vice, Disease, Responsibility1 Vice, Disease, Responsibility: A Whirlwind History.
-
date post
21-Dec-2015 -
Category
Documents
-
view
218 -
download
2
Transcript of Vice, Disease, Responsibility1 Vice, Disease, Responsibility: A Whirlwind History.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 2
1892
Criminal Code enacted Gambling provisions contained in a
section titled “Offences against religion, morals and public conveniences”.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 3
1900
Exemption for charities The first pivotal moment in Canadian
gambling history.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 4
1909-1910 The Miller Bill
Private Member’s Bill Sought to curtail the growing business
of betting on horse racing. Concern to eliminate gambling on and
off race tracks. Debated extensive in the House of
Commons and publicly before a Special Committee.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 5
Miller Bill
M.P. & spokesperson for anti-gambling coalition of Protestant Church groups that comprised the Moral and Social Reform Movement.
The same folks that brought us: Prohibition, Narcotic Laws, Sabbatarianism and Eugenics
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 6
Miller Bill
Bill amended, unintended result – betting on race tracks became legal.
Legal Monopoly for 70 years of the 20th Century.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 7
World War One Betting at track halted for duration of
war. 1919 Royal Commission. Last hurrah for Moral Reform
Movement’s anti-gambling crusade. Race track betting reinstated.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 8
1925
Agricultural Fairs exempted Second pivotal moment in Canadian
gambling history.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 9
1930’s
Depression – a few calls for national lottery or sweepstakes to relieve the unemployed or to build hospitals.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 10
1950s
1954 Joint Committee of Senate & House of Commons on Capital Punishment, Corporal Punishment, and Lotteries.
Recommendation: No State Lotteries. Last genuine public consultations on
gambling in Canada.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 11
1969 & 1985
Governments authorized to conduct and or license lotteries and lottery schemes.
1985 – electronic games and the consolidation of Provincial authority.
Amendments enacted in the absence of public consultation.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 12
Post 1995 Proliferation
Varying interpretations of Criminal Code Provisions.
Intent of federal Code was to be national, consistent and uniform.
Balkanization of regulatory and operating regimes.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 13
Side Note:
Alberta quick to exploit the Code exceptions charities and agricultural.
Graft and Corruption evident in the establishment of casinos here in Edmonton in the late 1960s.
Contrary, to public opinion B.C. does not have the Canadian monopoly.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 14
Process of legalization
Represented a move away from a conception of gambling as a “vice”
Those who participated in gambling were no longer subject to a moral censure.
Involvement of charity and government regulation/operation destigmatizing forces.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 15
Disease
Proliferation of gambling through 1970s 80’s and into the 1990s began to provoke criticisms in Canada especially with the advent of hard-core gambling formats such as electronic gaming machines.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 16
Researchers and Research
Taken more seriously. Prevalence studies undertaken.
Gambling behaviour specialists - psychologists, psychiatrists, clinicians, sociologists and researchers - move to the centre stage of policy debates.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 17
Problem Gambling
And its negative impacts spur the call for more research and treatment services.
1992/93 no provinces committed resources to problem gambling.
By 1997/98 all provinces had.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 18
Disease…
Gambling as a health issue “outed” - to be taken seriously.
Persons who gamble excessively are generally seen as “sick” and in need of treatment.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 19
Responsible Gambling
Has very recently emerged as a unifying construct bringing governments, gaming industries, problem gambling therapists and the academic community together.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 20
Ontario, for example, The Canadian Foundation on Problem
Gambling (0ntario) est. 1983. Re-engineered as the Responsible
Gambling Council (Ontario) A non-profit, NGO funded by Ontario
Ministry of Health. Mandate: public awareness, prevention,
education in regard to problem gambling
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 21
RGC advisory “partners”: Ministry of health & long-term care Ontario Problem Gambling hotline Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corp. Centre for Addiction & Mental Health Ontario Problem Gambling Research
Centre. Ontario Horse Racing Industry Assoc. Ontario Gaming Secretariat
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 22
Strategic Alliances:
Between what once were strange bedfellows.
Now work toward the common goals of prevention, harm reduction, value systems, and quality of life.
Encouragement of “responsible gambling behaviours”.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 23
Government officials and gaming industry have new allies in the form of treatment experts and researchers.
Together the problematic aspects of excessive gambling are redefined under the rubric “responsible gambling”.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 24
Responsible Gambling
Entails a mixture of concerns focused on individual gamblers regarding moral fault, self-control, medical and social causation and therapeutic intervention.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 25
Responsible gambling agenda
Neutralizes such issues as accessibility of gaming, its expansion, its formats, and the profit motives of government and industry.
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 26
Responsible Gambling paradigm
Transposes social problems affiliated with excessive gambling into individual problems and depoliticizes them.
To twist the words of C.Wright Mills: Public Issues remain Private Problems
Vice, Disease, Responsibility 27
Conclusion
Public has tolerated the transformation of gambling’s status through the 20th century.
Public Support is provisional. Persistent treat: Corruption & Problem
Gambling.