KCAGoG (GRINS) in the news
Here are a couple of recent articles from the Kentville Advertiser. Note that they incorrectly describe our Chair, Bruce Dienes as a sociologist. Bruce’s Ph.D. is in Psychology.
Brief Excerpt follows. Click on the link above for the full article.
Members of a Valley activist group are concerned about the province’s decision last week to scrap the My Play System for video lottery terminal gambling.
Volunteers with Kings Community Action Group on Gambling, spokesman Bruce Dienes said, view the decision as a lost opportunity to reduce gambling harms for Nova Scotians.
“The problems highlighted about the system were due to the flawed rollout that included the ‘light enrollment option’ that did not require users to register,” he said of the program launched in 2012.
“Our observations and conversations with VLT gamblers and venue staff indicate that the full benefits of the system were circumvented by this option,” Dienes said.
He said that the card was being used primarily in the function of an on/off switch.
“Visits to VLT venues showed boxes overflowing with the cards and venue staff and VLT gamblers report discarding cards and getting new ones often multiple times during a VLT gambling session,” he added.
That isn’t how the program was supposed to work.
Brief Excerpt follows. Click on the link above for the full article.
A Kings County action group is working towards a vision of “healthy communities free of gambling harm.
“Gambling harms impact the entire community – about $4 million in gambling revenue leaves Kings County every year, reducing potential spending by customers of local businesses,” said Bruce Dienes, who chairs Kings Community Action Group on Gambling.
“The lack of transparency, effective regulation, and adequate education needs to be addressed. This goes beyond those who are individually harmed by unsafe gambling products,” Dienes said.
“Family members, friends, colleagues, workplaces and the larger community are both directly and indirectly impacted.”
