By
Stanley Tromp, Canadian Press, Oct.
4, 2016
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The British Columbia Lottery Corp. launched some Internet games and casino projects without performing a mandatory review that included assessing a game's impact
on problem gambling, an
internal audit shows.
The failure to do a
social-responsibility review
was highlighted as a problem that "should be addressed and resolved
immediately," the corporation's internal audit branch said last March in a
report. It was released to The Canadian Press under the province's freedom of
information law.
Since 2009, the lottery corporation has required
new projects to undergo an internal "corporate social responsibility
assessment," or CSRA. It performs about 2,000 of the assessments a year to
weed out imagery that appeals to minors, as well as "messaging that
excessively glamorizes gambling, or presents it as an alternative to
employment."
"Not completing a CSRA
may lead to initiatives conflicting with corporate social responsibility
objectives, and may result in negative public perceptions towards BCLC,"
auditors wrote, adding that it might also result in violations of advertising
standards set by the provincial gambling regulator, the B.C. Gaming Policy and
Enforcement Branch.
Angela Koulyras,
a spokeswoman for the lottery
corporation, said contrary to company policy, some of its social media pages, such as its PlayNow Facebook page, did not include a responsible
gambling message.
The audit shows that two
casino slot-game themes were submitted for a corporate social responsibility
assessment review missing
"critical information" about the games.
Both errors have since been
fixed, Koulyras said, adding the lottery branch has completed its
assessments.
In July 2010, the
corporation's PlayNow.com website was taken off line for more than a month while a privacy
breach was patched.
Last year, nine people were
given a combined $1 million in retroactive winnings after the corporation said
a display issue with a game on
the website was discovered.
Most problems found in the audit
were "a result of staff turnover and training," the lottery corporation said, and it
pledged to train more
employees on problem
gambling.
It also said it is ramping up
other efforts to curb gambling addiction, including running a Responsible
Gambling Awareness Week, making available GameSense
information advisers who speak to 4,500 people every month, and helping fund
the independent Centre for Gambling Research at the University of British
Columbia.
David Eby,
the NDP's gambling critic, said the lottery
corporation should also insist that all customers show identification at casino
doors to block criminals or those who are on a self-exclusion list for gambling addicts.
Susan Dolinski,
the lottery corporation's
vice-president of social responsibility, said it has not ruled out any option
including checking ID at casino entrances, and it has discussed the privacy
implications with the B.C. privacy commissioner's office.
She said no other casino in
Canada conducts that level of screening, and technology is not advanced enough
yet to make it practical to screen the 30 million people who visit B.C. casinos
every year.
Eby said he would also like to
see the corporation provide long-term counselling support in addition to the
emergency support offered by its helpline.
The responsible-gambling
program is overseen by the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch of the Finance
Ministry. The ministry said the province has 30 clinical counsellors who
provide free long-term gambling counselling across B.C., and 1,500 people were
helped last year.
Eby also criticized the province
for raising the maximum allowed to be spent on online weekly betting from $120 to $10,000 in 2009 while
putting in place web-based
games, which B.C.'s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch said in 2013 were too
addictive.
The lottery corporation uses a consultant called Gamgard to aid in responsible game design.
Eby said a 2011 Gamgard analysis on PlayNow slot games flagged problems
and ways to make them less addictive, but BCLC did not follow this advice. Koulyras disputed that account, saying of the 2011 study
that only one slot-game theme was rejected by the responsible gaming branch and
it was removed from the website.
The corporation's 2015-2016
service plan notes that "player awareness of responsible gambling
activities was below target." Dolinski said
that's because it is shifting its focus from raising problem gambling awareness
to "changing behaviours and measuring
outcomes."
The most recent B.C. Prevalence of Problem Gambling Study
in 2014 found that about 3.3 per cent of adults have a gambling problem, a drop
from 4.6 per cent in 2008.
Dolinski said the corporation is
committed to curbing gambling addiction, even if doing so reduces its income.
"That is why we invest
in so many programs," she said. "Our goal, to be clear, is that none
of our revenue would come from problem gamblers. There is always more we can do."
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