Casino and Pointe St-Charles not a good mix: residents

A coalition of community groups in the Montreal neighbourhood of Pointe St-Charles vows to fight Loto-Québec's plan to build a casino in the neighbourhood.

While the Quebec government considers Loto-Québec's proposal, residents say there isn't a worse place to build a casino.

Loto-Québec says its current casino on île-Notre-Dame is small, old and can't be expanded because of zoning laws.

With its 120 gaming tables and 3,000 slot machines spread over five floors, it ranks among the largest casinos in the world.

But the lottery corporation says there's a site in Pointe St-Charles that could accommodate a bigger, better place to gamble.

Residents in the area say they don't want a gambling institution in their neighbourhood.

"We don't want gambling in our backyard or anyone else's backyard," says Patricia Murphy, director of St. Columba House, a neighbourhood community centre.

"Perhaps there's pressure on them to increase their revenues, but they shouldn't do that on the backs of poor people."

Murphy says 40 per cent of residents in the area live under the poverty line and that makes them vulnerable to gambling.

"We believe that the moving of the casino will only bring to this community problems related to the gambling industry: increased levels of crime at a time when we're already fighting increases in drug trafficking and prostitution in the community," Murphy says.

"We're also worried what might be the impact on local businesses and ... the problem of the increase in compulsive gambling."

Studies show there are health risks linked to casinos, according to Jason McDevitt, who is on the board of directors of the Pointe St-Charles community clinic.

"Some of the direct effects include the increase in the number of compulsive gamblers, [and] there's an increase in domestic violence and child abuse that's been shown to be correlated with compulsive gambling," McDevitt says

The coalition has already collected 600 signatures on a petition from local residents opposed to the casino.

Groups say they'll ratchet up the pressure on local politicians until the government axes the plan.