A pub owner in North Delta, British Columbia has been fined $575 for holding a 50/50 charity raffle without a license. Sue Rees at Kennedy’s Pub held the raffle to benefit dozens of people put out onto the street after their apartment block caught fire. The pub had raised $13k, including $5k donated directly by the pub, but there will be no more raffles. Of course, the law’s the law, and Rees went against the law, so now she’s dealing with the consequences. But surely shutting the raffle down will suffice. Just seems wrong to fine her when her heart seems to have been in the right place.
Rees might want the government off her back, but a Canadian small-c conservative ‘family values’ group wants the government off the gambling train altogether. The Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (not to be confused with the Institute of Divorce and Homewreckers) has released a rather comical report that suggests the ripple effect of problem gamblers eventually touches 25% of the national population. (We’re guessing that if you read the words ‘problem gamblers’ in that last sentence, you should consider yourself one of the affected.)
On the plus side, IMFC — or, as we presume they call each other when no outsiders are around, “I’m Fucked” — would like government to privatize their current gambling operations. Fine by us. After all the bad press it’s received, we suspect BCLC’s wonky PlayNow.com could be got pretty cheap…
