Counsellors criticize downtown gaming centre
WINNIPEG, MB—Local addictions counsellors are critical of a high-end gaming centre and sports bar that will open this spring on the second floor of Cityplace, a downtown Winnipeg shopping centre.
Featuring slot machines and card tables, the new facility will be owned by True North, owners of the Winnipeg Jets, and operated by Manitoba Lotteries.
"We certainly do not condone gambling in any form, and one of the dangers we see having something like that downtown is that it will just make it easier for many of the clients we serve to access gambling," says Edgar Schroeder, senior chaplain at Union Gospel Mission, where he works with the men's addiction program.
Jonathan Hamel of The Salvation Army agrees.
"The very nature of gambling lends itself to an exploitative, deceptive and manipulative practice—the house always wins," says Hamel, who works as the communications and marketing coordinator at The Salvation Army.
"We don't feel that it's a productive use of the resources that a person has. There are much better ways to invest your resources for a much better, beneficial outcome. We don't believe it needs to be a means of income generation for anyone… In order for someone to win, there has to be a whole lot of losers. We think that's kind of exploitative. That's not a fair way of doing things."
Ivor Grant, coordinator for The Salvation Army's Anchorage Program, which works with people struggling with a variety of addictions, says a gambling addiction is similar to a drug addiction in that it affects the brain's chemistry.
"There certainly are some differences" between a gambling addiction and other addictions, Grant says. "What we can say is definitely in terms of how the brain responds to addiction, it responds the same to gambling as it does to alcohol or other substance abuse."
The Anchorage Program works with gambling addicts on occasion, but usually refers them to an Addictions Foundation of Manitoba facility in Brandon, Manitoba that is better equipped to help people who struggle with gambling.
Meanwhile, Union Gospel Mission has an addictions program for men at its Princess Street location that can accommodate 25 men, as well as a program for women at the Charis Centre on Archibald Street that can include up to 20 women.
Schroeder describes Union Gospel's approach as biblically-based, intended to lead participants to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In that way, it's similar to a discipleship program.
"We take the biblical approach that Christ can take over any addiction any person is facing," Schroeder says.
The program offers Bible classes as well as sessions on how to deal with addiction on a more practical level. Schroeder and his colleagues also make arrangements for clients to participate in other recovery programs both on and off site, as well as assist in connecting them with local churches.
Teen Challenge, another Christian ministry that helps people struggling with addiction, takes a similar approach in that it focuses on participants' relationship with Christ, rather than on their addiction.
"Those addictions tend to fall away when the inner man is healed, when his reason and identity for being on the earth becomes more relevant and he comes closer to Christ," says Steve Paulson, executive director at Teen Challenge.
Like Schroeder and Hamel, Paulson is critical of the gaming centre slated to open downtown.
"It's obviously only something that's going to hurt people and families, and destroy and pull at the fibre of our community," he says. "It's certainly not something we would think is a positive thing for our city."
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