The provincial crown corporation which oversees gambling in B.C. is boosting their services which provide information on problem gambling at the Chances Terrace casino and others.
Beginning in January an employee from the lottery corporation will be stationed at the information booth located at the entrance to Chances.
The idea is to encourage people to play responsibly through providing information and education, says Walt Krahn who is part of the B.C. Lottery Corporation’s GameSense program.
All regular gaming centre staff are trained to inform and connect people if they ask for information and the information booth already has brochures and a self serve computer terminal to inform people about responsible gambling, but they are hiring an advisor for the booths to make face to face connections with people, said Krahn.
“The intent is that we want to be able to have someone on site who is available at any given time to provide information,” he said.
GameSense provides strategies to avoid problem gambling, such as limiting time and money, going with a friend, and having a wide variety of leisure activities.
It also has information about how the games work, odds of winning, and services available for people with problem gambling, including a voluntary self-exclude program, where they can choose to be kept out of a gaming centre for a certain length of time.
Krahn visits Terrace every three months to train Chances staff to know how to connect with patrons, provide information and education and how to help them if they want more information and support.
Last Wednesday he presented about the GameSense program to 26 members of the Terrace Rotary Club at a breakfast event.
This comes at a time when Terrace council is considering a proposal from Chances Terrace to expand the number of slot machines, with a long-term goal of opening a new executive-level hotel with Chances adjoined on land it hopes to purchase from the city.
NOTE: The BC Lottery Corporation wishes to clarify that any person hired in conjunction with its GameSense program would be a contractor employed through the provincial finance ministry’s gaming policy enforcement branch. The corporation and the branch do work closely together on gambling information programs. Further, any decision to place GameSense advisors in gaming centres such as Chances Terrace has not been made and is under review.
