Vancouver casino may jeopardize gaming plans

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On-reserve gambling - the Great Red Hope for B.C. bands - could be in jeopardy before the first casino opens its doors.

The biggest problem facing bands planning to build casinos on reserves was persuading the province to change its laws to allow them to profit from gambling, which they claim as a right.

The First Nations Gaming Committee was negotiating with the government for a new law. But the committee now fears Natives have more to worry about after the B.C. government approved plans for a casino in downtown Vancouver.

The committee's Sharon Bowcott accused the province of a secret agenda to deny Natives the right to run casinos, a "divide and conquer" scheme to whip up public sentiment against Native gambling.

In recent months, the odds looked good for bands running their own casinos.

The Kamloops Band struck a partnership with powerful businessman Murray Pezim for plans to build a $25-million casino offering blackjack and slot machines on their reserve in the interior as soon as the province gave the OK.

And consultant Clark Chilton, who represents eight bands, said they have signed letters of intent with a European gambling company to open casinos, all outside the Vancouver area. He said they're awaiting approval by the federal Indian Affairs department.

And bands with reserves in Vancouver - the Squamish, Musqueam and Burrard bands - said they've been getting pitches from Las Vegas biggies such as Caesar's and Harrah's.

Other bands, most notably the Nanaimo band on Vancouver Island, they they'd open a Las Vegas-style casino with or without the government's approval.

But then the province pulled a trump card with the $750-million development on Vancouver's downtown waterfront that includes a Las Vegas style casino.

It will be run by Mirage Resorts Inc., one of the big players in Las Vegas, and it'll be huge - 11,250 square metres, compared with the Kamloops band's 5,400 square-metre house.

The casino is part of the proposed complex that includes a hotel, convention centre and cruise ship terminal and was selected by the site. It's backed by a development consortium called VLC Property Ltd., in which the province owns a 15-per-cent interest.

And he said he refuses to be rushed into changing gaming laws, which now limit gambling to government-run casinos with games like blackjack and roulette. That, he said, would take six months.

But the Vancouver Port Corporation, a Crown corporation with authority over the port area and waterfront, called the casino central to the complex and said it would fail if the government didn't change the gambling laws.

When announcing its plan, VLC said 10 per cent of the casino would involve Native bands.

But that was news even to the Natives.

Pezim and his partners were unfazed, calling the Mirage casino good news that would pave the way for other gambling ventures in the province.

And band consultant Chilton welcomed the competition from the Mirage project, saying there was plenty of room in the province for all the proposed casinos.

But Calvin Helin, president of the Native Investment and Trade Association, called the proposal bad news for Native gaming ventures because they would all be competing for the same gamblers' dollars.

Bowcott said she knows of no band that was approached by VLC or Mirage. She said she suspects the 10-per-cent proposal was tossed in for the "politically correct" reason of including Natives.

But the committee became alarmed after VLC and Mirage released a poll conducted to survey public support for legalized gambling because it included questions on Native gambling.

It showed 28 per cent of those surveyed believed gambling on reserves to be completely unacceptable, compared with 11 per cent opposing gambling at resort destinations.

"My initial reaction to this poll is one of anxiety and anger," she said. "The First Nations Gaming Committee is beginning to sense there is a conspiracy building to prevent us from succeeding in hain our own gaming interests."