Casino satisf They come to try to beat the man who always wins By ROD LINK THE SECURITY CHIEF adjusts a control lever. A camera lens responds by zooming in on the cards held by a pair of hands. A TV screen displays each card clearly. **From here we can see exactly what goes on,’’ says the security chief. ‘He’s speaking from a small room jammed with TV screens, video cassette recorders and wall shelves containing scores of video tapes. Is from this small room that the serious business of the Royal Diamond Casino at the Plaza of Nations in Vancouver goes on. Cameras cover the casino parking lot, the entrance, the room where money’s counted, the room where money is exchanged for chips and the action at each table. There’s not a jot of talk on the Royal Diamond ————7] Door where gamblers sit hunched over their chips and cards, watching the croupiers do their thing. On an early Wednesday evening, some tables are empty while others are full of a crowd that’s mostly young, Asian and male. **They’re here to take our money,” says Royal Diamond owner Gary q Jackson. ‘‘They’ve got se the itch and luck is on . Gary Jackson their side and they think they’re going to beat you.”’ Gambling is a serious business here as the casino tums over hundreds of thousands of dollars a night in winnings, revenues to the provincial government, revenues to charities and profits for the casino. Gamblers dropped $40.4 million on Royal Diamond’s tables last year and it paid out nearly one-quarter of that in winnings while providing $10.4 million in revenues for the province, charitics and for the casino. Some people win big but there are plenty of others who leave more than enough behind on the tables to make Jackson happy. Also more than happy is the provincial government which wants to expand the quantity and type of casino-slyle gam- bling across the province. It explains why Jackson wants to open a casino in Terrace and area and why there’s support and oppo- sition to his plans. Rejected twice last week by Ter- race city council and by the Kitsumkalum band council, Jackson has one card left to play — the ac- CHIPS AND CARDS are the order of the day at the Royal Diamond Casion at the Plaza of Nations in Vancouver. Mark Ouelette and Sandra. Harvey (left) are from a North Vancouver pre-school which is one of nearly 250 charities benefitting from the casino's take. They're The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 3,1997 - AS ies ‘human need’ with croupier Janice Dixon, one of 200 full and part time casino em- ployees. Full time employees can make upward of $40,000 a year through a combination of earnings and customer tips. The casino will be moving soon as more room is needed for slot machines. ceptance by the Kitimat-Stikine regional district for a plan to run a casino just off of Hwy16 in Thorn- bill. ‘Gambling is no differemt than food, booze, sex -—- you name it. It’s a human need,’’ says Jackson. “The level of morality is changing about gambling and society is becoming more accepting.” And because gambling is Jackson’s business, he’s clear about what it'll bring to Terrace. There’s the promise of up to 70 jobs and a payroll of $1.5 mil- lion, And ithere’s the promise of local charities benefiting by a piece of the profits. But there’s another promise outlined by Jackson — one that he can’t fulfill, The province, says Jack- son, willl bring casino-style gambling to Terrace and area one way or the other. To reject Jackson’s plan for a casino to benefit jocal charities only opens the: way for whatever plan the province has, a plan that won’t help local charities and put casino gambling out of the jurisdiction of local govera- ments. ‘The lottery corporation is a crown corpora- tion and it can choose a piece of land and then do whalever il wants and everybody loses,” says Jack- son. Terrace and area is a natural place for a casino in the northwest because its geographic location makes it the centre of a population basc of nearly 70,000 people. A recent decision of the provincial goverament to introduce slot machines adds to the economic potential of opening a casino here, Jackson con- tinves. ‘It gives us an economic engine for viability, Table games aren’t enough on their own to justify an operation. The slots in Terrace will be subsidizing the table games.”’ Jackson’s plans call for 10 gaming tables and 100 slot machines where a good crowd out for the eve- ning would number 250 people. He’s not expecting to make a great profit in Terrace, saying combining a local casino’s operations with the one he has in Vancouver will bring him internal efficiencies, Be- cause of the high level of taxation, Jackson Gambling keeps pre-school’s doors open A SINGLE NIGHT'S work by eight volunteers. at the Royal Diamond Casino provides the Norgate parent participation pre-school in North Vancouver with enough money to keep it going. “If we didn't have this opportunity from a casino, we'd be closing the doors,’’ says Sandra Harvey, the chairman of the pre-school’s fund raising com- mittee. “The church in which we're located has raised the rent and once we pay that, the salary for a teacher, hydro and the phone, there isn’t much left for anything else such as getting the roof done or for new equipment. This is a big help,” she says. The pre-school is one. of nearly .250. onthe casino’s charity qualifying list IVI take nine months before the pre-school’s tum comes up again for a casino evening. Last year the charity received $18,000 for one night for the pre-school. That amount may be dif- ferent this year as new rules call for the amount charities receive ta be pooled once a month and then shared equally by the number of charities providing volunteers that month. Harvey and the other volunteers are divided inta Iwo even groups so that there are always four people on duty from the time the casino opens at noon until-it-closes at-2:a.m. Their job, according to provincial regulations, is to monitor the flow of chips from a counting room to the tables. It’s not a hard job for the benefit the pre-school brings in return. There isn’t a casino in North Vancouver and Har- vey doesn’t want one in her neighbourhcod. ‘We were talking about it in the car on the way over,”’ says Harvey. ‘*A place like here, outside of a neigh- bourhood is fine,’ she says of the Royal Diamond's location i in the Plaza of Nations, an en- terlainment complex by B.C. Place and GM Place which served as the heart of the Expo &6 site. estimates at average casino in B.C. now returns 5 to 10 per cent a year on investment. Opposition to casino-style gambling on the basis of moralily doesn’t make sense to Jackson. He notes that the Terrace Anti-Poverty Group, which is against his plans, already benefits from bingo. And the opposition of local Catholics goes against their church’s use of bingos and other means to raise money for various activities associated with the church. Jackson responds to a quote from local Catholic priest Father John Smith that gambling is stealing. “‘If it’s stealing, why don’t they give back what they’ve made?’’ Jackson says. He believes that opposition from municipal politicians is more in response to their dislike of the provincial government. [vs a political issue, but people won’t admit that — the politicians at the municipal level who hate the provincial govern- meni,’’ Jackson continues. The casino owner dismisses the image of casinos being run by unseen organized crime figures by holding up a red binder containing four inches of disclosure documents. “I’m more squeaky clean than a municipal politician, ?' Jackson says. Jackson has been in the gambling business for nearly 11 years after a long cateer as a commercial - fisherman. He got out of that business once he saw how the fishery was changing from a social right to the reality of a hard-nosed commercial enterprise. Just as the business of fishing has changed, so has the business of gambling and its acceptance in Brit- ish Columbia, says Jackson. He even has a sugges- tion as to how the provincial government’s profits from a northwest charity casino can be used. ‘Maybe they can help keep that Repap pulp mill going.”” , Recall has snowball’s chance in Skeena By MALCOLM BAXTER HERE’S AN experiment you can all try at home — kids included — to give you an idea of what’s going to happen to the recall cam- “paign that’s just been launched against : Skeena MLA Helmut Giesbrecht. First, stoke the wood stove up good (if you don’t have a wood stove, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees). Next, go outside and make a snowball. Bring the snowball inside, toss it into the stove/oven, tum your back and wait three minutes. . Open up the stove/oven and look for the snowball. It’s vanished? Congratulations, you’ ve just baked a recall cookie. Although the above is in fun, it isnot intended to _ make fun of the recallers. It's simply putting the cam- " palgn Into perspective. The opponents of recall say it’s being misused, that it _ was only supposed to be invoked in the most heinous of circumstances. They’re wrong in the sense nothing in the legislation says that. - They're right in the sense that it was designed so that it could only work in such circumstances. To successfully petition for recall you have to get the signatures of 40 per cent of the registered voters at the last election. Note well, not 40 per cent of those. who actually voted, just those who were entitled to vote. In Skeena that translates to 7,557 votes. That's 100 people more than the combined 1996 vate for Liberal Rick Wozney and Reformer Andy Burton. ‘ So your challenge as a recaller is to get every single ‘one of those 1996 Liberal/Reform voters to sign up plus another 100 - 100 people who couldn’t even be bothered to vote. Canit be done? The Doorstep Factor Recall is a strange animal. — Invan‘election it’s all very clear —to make your mark, : literally, you have to get off your butt, take yourself toa polling station, and put the X in the: place of your choice, With recall, you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your home...or shopping mall..or. bar. All you have ibbte your John Henry on a plece of paper. 5 todo is scribble y v P p per businesses that opened in the last 18 months: ate | still someone shoves infront of you: Obviously, people who voted for Reform were not New Democrat supporters. Which makes them natural recall backers, right? Maybe not. So there’s John Henry — the guy who couldn’t be bothered to vote last time - relaxing at home after a hard day at work and half way through his favourite TV show. He gets called away to deal with someone on his doorstep wielding a recall petition. The easy way out is to sign and get back to the pro- gram. Will he take it? Ef he’s apolitical enough not even to have voted last time, he might. And there are 5,625 John Does out there in terms of _ 1996 non-voters. Grab just 10 per cent of them and the recallers are on a roil. But then again, he might just tell you to take a hike. Or not even be home-when you call, And if he’s nat at home on that first call, will you have time, given the 60 day time limit, to hit his-home again before the sands nin out? Okay, forget the ones that didn’t vole, let’s con- centrate on the politically conversant who did. . The Kitimat Factor This community is a desert for recallers. In 1996 Giesbrecht outpolled Wozney and Burton combined in six of 20 polls and | gol as close as makes no difference in four more. The total anti-NDP vote was neatly 400 short.of the 40 per cent of registered voters, the magic figure to make recall work. So, in Kitimat, the recallers have to get the signatures of every single person who voted Liberal/Reform last time, plus another 400, In other words get 400 people to sign up who didn’ t even vote last time or persuade 400 Giesbrecht support ers to jump ship. © That last is just not going to happen. Kitimat i is in too much of a feel good mode. The Alcan expansion. may not be guaranteed, bul most of the NDP party faithful are convinced it?s going to happen. ° - The community has seen a spate af sesidential build- ing which, based on the experience of. the past decade, counts as a boom. . The rental vacancy rate has just tumbled to the extent Kitimat is no longer the northern dweller cellar. * Sears has just launched a new 6,000 sq. ft. store and alive, no mean feat when compared to the bad old days. So who's going to defect when the good times roll? No one. The Terrace Factor In Terrace the recallers task seers comparatively easy: sign up everyone who voted the anti-NDP can- didate plus a mere dozen extra. Until you throw Kitimat into the equation. Hf they’ re going to be 400 short of the target there, they have to make it up elsewhere. “Which again means’ you -would have to see major defections by 1996 Giesbrechl supporters from Terrace, Come to think of it, catastrophic would be a better word. In 1996 Giesbrecht polled 1,753 votes in Terrace. To pull. back the Kitimat shortfall, that would mean close to one quarter of his supporters from the last elec- tion would have lo jump ship. Dream on. Thornhill Pure recall country. Giesbrecht got hammered here in the last election, losing all seven polls. being outgunned 2-1 in four of them and close-to that in two more, Even so, the total anti-NDP vole was only 11 ballots . more than the 40 per. cent of registered voters recall target. | - So here again, it is not enough just to rally the 1996 troops, ‘Thornhill has to do something, to offset the Kitimat shortfall. The Reform Factor Obviously, people. who voled for. Reform were not New Democrat supporters. ~ Which makes them natural recall backers, tight? Maybe nol. At least a good chunk of thase 1996 Reformers had to have worked out their candidate had no chance of winning. « ‘And yet these anli-NDPers still ‘did not swing ‘thelr “yates to Rick Wodney and the Liberals; clearly their best 7 chance of stopping Gitsbrecht being re-elected. - “Why? Because a significant segment of the ‘Reform . vote was a protest against “politics as usual.” So here’s 1996 Reformer Joe Blow being asked to sign the recall petition. Since he can’t sland the NDP, he should be an easy sign up. But, if he’s read the writing on the wall, he knows that a successful recall will not offer another chance to vault a Reformer into the legislature. His party has vanished provincially and it’s already clear the Libs would be given a clear run against Giesbrecht: (or any replacement) in a resulting by- election... So forcing a successful recall doesn’t translate to another chance to vote for his party of choice, but to vote for the Liberals. The Liberals he wouldn't vote for last time. The Liberals that he hates federally. Achance to vote for “politics as usual.” In 1996 in Rosswood 20 people voted for Reform against just 8 for the Liberals. In he Gossen/Copperside area il was 75-32 in favour of Reform. In Remo 29-19. Terrace rural was an even 93 split. : Small potatoes, on the face of it. But given the recali- ers need every signature they can get and the target they face, even small defections will destroy their chances. The Rural Factor Add up the anti-NDP vote in the three main popula- tion centres of Kitimat, Terrace and Thornhill and you find the figure falls short of the 40 per cent figure by 382, But if you look at the riding as a whole, the anti-NDP vote was only 95 shy of that figure. Which underlines the importance of those rural areas. Given their problems elsewhere,. the recallers cannot afford to ignote the rural areas if they are to have any chance to achieve their goal. - The question is, do they have the bodies in those areas who can knock on all these far-apart doors to get the needed signatures? The Bottom Line Based on the evidence, the recall effort will not succeed unless there’s.a lot more golng on out there than “we know. However, if this analysis proves ta be completely out . of whack and recall does succeed, this much is certain: Helmut Giesbrecht should go back to teaching:and the NDP shouldn't event bother runding a candidate i in the ’ by-election.” ‘Because, piven the impossible odds of sticcess, if ; recall does succeed the results of any ensuing byrelee- tion are a fotepone conclusion.