'An unconscionable abuse of power and privilege'
National Affairs
Claire Hoy
The headline was self-explanatory: "Police crack down on poker dens." It turns out that a year-long OPP-led undercover police operation in York region resulted in 43 arrests, the seizure of $12,250 in cash, plus $9,000 worth of poker tables, computers and gambling chips at Lethal Q, a club above a bakery in Woodbridge.

Police officers told The Globe and Mail that a recent poker night at that club drew 56 gamblers, each paying $470 to enter, a total of $26,320. The winner took home $10,000 and after second and third prizes were allotted, police say the owner netted $8,000 in profits.

It took more than 20 police officers to conduct the raid - the steel front entrance door was protected by bars and was unlocked remotely by a buzzer - and the police say in the Toronto area alone there is a big gambling bust every two months or so. They say that a similar pattern is experienced by Ontario's four other joint-forces anti-gambling teams.

Their complaint is that the fines are too modest - likely a few hundred dollars and a court-ordered diversion program - to dissuade people from partaking in the growing popularity of gambling, particularly the Texas hold'em games so popularized on cable television these days.

Here's my question: Why? Why do we devote so many scarce police resources trying to stop an activity which is perfectly legal if the government runs it, but illegal if it's a private game? Why is nothing wrong with government gambling, but everything wrong with private gambling?

The Canadian Gaming Association says spending on gambling in Canada is larger than the magazine, book, spectator sport, movie theatre and performing arts industries combined.

Ontario alone has four commercial/resort casinos, 17 racetracks and six charity casinos. In 2005-06, Ontario had 10,798 ticket lottery outlets and 101 bingo facilities; Ontario issued 2,516 provincial charitable licenses; and there were over 23,000 slot machines under the aegis of the Ontario government.

If you're just heading out to buy your lottery ticket, you're not alone. In Ontario, 52.4 percent of all adults buy lottery tickets, 28.7 raffle tickets, 24.9 percent scratch tickets, and 16.5 percent play casino slots.

There's more. Even 32.7 percent of Ontario kids between grades 7 and 12 play cards for money while 23.6 gamble in other ways and 18.5 percent buy lottery tickets.

Everybody - or almost everybody - seems to be doing it. Is that a bad thing? Not if it's run by government, apparently. Only if it's private. How absurd is that? Gambling is either wrong or it isn't.

But since the Ontario government raked in more than $6 billion in 2005-06 gambling revenues - that's "billion," not "million" - politicians don't want to share.

Which, of course, explains the double standard here. It's the same reason why we don't have private beer and liquor stores - unlike most jurisdictions elsewhere. It's the money, stupid. It's incredibly hypocritical.

So what if people want to get together and play poker for money? Why should that matter to the police or the public - except, of course, that it only

matters because the politicians have used their power to protect their monopoly on raking in the cash from gambling?

Imagine a police officer making a big deal about a game in which the owner of the club netted $8,000 in one night. He should head up to Orillia or Niagara Falls and see what they net every night.

Granted, much of this gambling revenue is used by the government for "good works by all three levels of government.

Again, so what? They can use the tax system to raise the money they need - including taxing and licensing private gambling and booze distribution to make sure they're not run by gangsters.

There's no justifiable reason for a government monopoly beyond greed and an unconscionable abuse of power ad privilege. Anyway, haven't the police got enough real crime to fight without using so many resources to bust up local poker games? It's just wrong to arrest people and fine them or jail them for doing the same thing they could do if they were in a government-run facility. Can't we just shake Big Brother from our daily lives?

Don't bet on it, of course. Especially if you're placing a private bet.