Vancouver City Council

MOTION ON NOTICE

Submitted by Councillor Sullivan for the Regular Council meeting of February 10, 2004.

4. Monitoring Impacts of Slots

MOVER: Councillor Sullivan
SECONDER: Councillor

WHEREAS this Council recently overturned a long-standing policy of not allowing video slot machines in Vancouver

WHEREAS there are many social problems associated with this form of expanded gambling

WHEREAS of the hundreds of million dollars in profit that are expected from these new machines, the majority will come out of the entertainment budget of citizens and will harm the vitality of the downtown businesses that compete for these entertainment dollars, while a significant proportion of the profits will come from people with addiction problems

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff develop options for using some of the initial proceeds of the expanded gambling from slot machines to monitor the social problems that are caused by them, including:
· new homeless people
· gambling related suicides
· bankruptcies
· family breakdowns
· business failures in the entertainment industry competing with slots.

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