The Centretown Community Health Centre, along with eight other health agencies, called on the city to ‘just say no’ to the casino proposal at a press conference Monday.
According to Jeff Morrison, the board president of the CCHC, research has shown a rise in the number of gamblers and negative societal impacts accompany a casino.
“Our centres have all seen the devastation brought by problem gambling on individuals and their families,” he said. “By calling on the city to turn down a casino, we are hoping to eliminate that risk.”
Five community health centres and four community resource centres have passed motions against the casino’s arrival and have asked the city to increase public consultation on the project.
If a casino is unavoidable, the agencies are urging the city to adopt guidelines established by the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health such as not having an ATM in the casino, not staying open for 24 hours, and imposing limits for maximum losses in a day, according to Morrison.
The CCHC runs a program for people with gambling addictions, funded partly by revenue from slot machines that the provincial government puts aside for treatment programs.