What sort of provincial government makes significant cuts in grants to arts and charities that it funds from casino revenue while, at the same time, kicking back millions of dollars to those same casinos to help cover their capital costs?

That’s what many British Columbians are asking since learning recently that their Liberal government has paid more than $400 million in revenue from casino gambling back to the privately-owned casinos since 1997 to reimburse them for part of their capital building costs.

As newspaper reports in British Columbia have disclosed, the province’s casinos have spent about $960 million during that time. This means they have had 42% of their capital building costs covered by taxpayers. And while B.C. casinos have enjoyed this “jackpot,” the Gordon Campbell government has methodically picked the pockets of arts, charities and non-profit volunteer groups through several years of drastic cutbacks.

Ironically, funding these groups was a major reason why Victoria entered the gambling business in the first place — a business from which B.C. currently rakes in more than $1 billion annually. Although casino revenue has risen steadily, community grants have fallen at the same pace. In 1999, the New Democratic Party government of the day was handing out about one-third of its casino revenue to charities and non-profit groups; that share fell to about 11% in the most recent B.C. budget.

It’s understandable if some of this casino revenue has to be redirected to meet other government-spending priorities; but it’s incomprehensible why the high-profit casino sector needs this capital-cost funding when B.C. is battling to eliminate its deficit.

Nor does Victoria’s explanation hold any water. It says casinos receive the grants, which are based on their net cash-flow performance, so that they’ll be encouraged to build high-quality facilities. Whatever happened to the basic business idea that a healthy private sector — which the gaming sector certainly is — should be able to fund its growth from its profits? And what other private sector wouldn’t love to have taxpayers cover more than 40% of capital costs?

Not surprising, this issue has left egg smeared all over the B.C. Liberal government’s face just as the party hits the home stretch in its leadership race to replace Premier Campbell in a Feb. 26 vote.

Alas, there’s more. The RCMP recently confirmed that B.C. casinos routinely fail to flag cash transactions of more than $10,000, as they’re supposed to, which makes the fight against criminals, who often launder their money in casinos, much more difficult.

There’s also a conflict of interest, in that both the promotion of gambling through the B.C. Lottery Corp. and its policing through the gambling policy and enforcement branch fall under the same Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General. At the very least, these two functions should be under the purview of separate ministries. IE