By Josh Brown
Martyn Bailey sits at the corner seat of a blackjack table, smoking a wine-tipped cigar with confidence. He says the cigar brings him luck. The dealer, in a white tuxedo shirt and black tie deals himself a six. Bailey gets a hand of 18 and relaxes. The odds are in his favor. The dealer has to beat his 18 to win. Bailey, a first-year Ryerson journalism student, and Ryerson business students Alex Felipe and Steve Moretto watch the dealer pull a ten and a five. 21. Calmly, Bailey butts out his cigar and is done for the night.
Bailey is bitter and shocked that he lost $15 on the night.
“Why don’t you take off your tie and make yourself some money?” he asks the dealer.
Around midnight on a Wednesday, Bailey, Felipe and Moretto are usually in bed. But tonight, they’re out satisfying their craving for blackjack with their monthly visit to a charity casino. Tonight, they’re at the Sai Woo Restaurant on Dundas Street.
Felipe has been going to charity casinos for two years, but Bailey and Moretto only started going in Septemeber when the trio of first-year students began making monthly trips.
At midnight on a Wednesday, they pack their wallets, throw on their walking shoes, occasionally slip on a shirt and tie and head to wherever the local charity casino is being held: at a banquet hall, a hotel or a bar.
“Hotels with big open rooms are the best for casinos, one’s where you’re not so cramped,” says Moretto. “You need room to win money.”
The third floor of the Sai Woo restaurant is usually closed on Wednesday nights, but tonight it’s filled with 30 green blackjack tables for a Monte Carlo event. The charity of the night is the Morris Winchevsky Schools, and three representatives sit tucked in the corner of the room, as required by government law. Still, it’s a good bet that the hundreds of amateur gamblers, clenching their chips and cramming the blackjack and poker tables, aren’t too happy about donating their losses to anybody, charities included.
The casinos are booked by charities such as the B’Nai Brith Foundation, Big Sisters and the Aphasia Centre and run for three days from 12 midnight until 4 a.m., all over Toronto.
Once inside the Sai Woo, the guys rush to the dollar betting table, leaving the five and ten dollar blackjack tables to the big leaguers. But the class of players typical at the dollar tables don’t provide much of a welcome wagon.
“It’s like you’re at a homeless convention,” says Moretto. “The clientele aren’t that classy, they’re all bums who smoke. If they think you’r making a mistake they won’t be afraid to tell you, even if it means yelling at you.”
Felipe agrees. “The atmosphere is tense because people are losing money. People get too serious and if they lose, they blame it on anyone they can.”
Playing for low stakes has its drawbacks. Bailey says he’s waited for more than two hours for a chance at one of the seven seats at a table.
“One night I waited for two hours to get a seat at a blackjack table,” says Bailey. “Finally one guy got up and asked me to save his seat while he took a leak. While he was gone I had time to play one hand. I bet $5 and got a blackjack. A blackjack pays 3-2 so I won $12.50. That’s the only time I’ve ever come out with a profit.”
Although luck hasn’t been on Bailey’s side, he says he doesn’t play just to win.
“I’ve definitely donated a lot of money to charity, that’s for sure. I don’t gamble with much money. It’s not the grocery money, but money I set aside for myself. I look at it more as a night out on the town with the guys, I don’t expect to win.”
Overall this year, Bailey has lost $60. His friends have ben luckier: Moretto has won $85 and Felipe is up $170.
“If I hit a winning streak, I’ll try to act the same way and hold the chips the same way until I lose again,” says Felipe. “It’s easier to win at blackjack than any other casino game, the odds of winning are high for the player.”
Felipe and Moretto aren’t the only ones winning. Deputy Registrar of the Gaming Control Act, Theresa Tedesco, says Ontario gaming brought in $2 billion for the province in 1993. Bingo was responsible for $1.2 billion of that, break open tickets $700 million, charity casinos $100 million and raffles $70 million.
“Ontario has the largest charitable gaming base in North America, with 50,000 potential charities,” says Tedesco. “Last year alone, there were 8,600 charitable licenses issued.”
Representatives from Sunshine Casinos say charities can make up to $20,000, but generally average around $3,000 per three day event.
Most casino operators do all the leg work. They find a location, advertise and supply the equipment. The charities pay casino expenses, as well as $10 a day per table to the government but keep the rest as profit.
“Charities can make money but the large majority don’t,” says Mark Murray of Fundtime Inc. “To make money it depends on the operators, location and how many other charity casinos are running simultaneously. There is little government control to see that the casinos are spread out.”
But charities such as the B’Nai Brith Foundation and the Morris Winchevsky Schools say that charity casinos are profitable.
“We have used charity casinos on a weekly basis for the last 2 1/2 years and made very good money,” says Morri Behrmann of B’Nai Brith. “When we were the only game in town, we made hundreds of thousands of dollars but now, because of competition, it’s harder to make money.”
Morris Winchevsky Schools has collected more than $50,000 in one year from the casinos.
“If I could run a charity casino every day, I would,” says Baruch Goldin of Morris Winchevsky Schools. “It’s the government who makes our operations as difficult as possible. They force us to hire police officers, which cost thousands of dollars for each event.”
Some charities are fighting for a permanent charity casino in the Toronto area to help reduce costs and increase profits.
In response, on March 1, the government allowed poker into charity casinos to help increase revenues. Poker allows 11 players to battle against each other, with pots reaching as much as $2,000.
“Most students wouldn’t be able to afford to play poker at the casinos, the stakes soar too high,” says Bailey.
Stan Ash of the Canadian Foundation of Compulsive Gambling (CFCG) worries about additional gambling events. “People should be aware that there is a dark side to gambling.”
A 1993 survey conducted by the CFCG found that 75,000 adults in Ontario have compulsive gambling problems, ranging from playing Lotto 6/49 to heading down to Las Vegas and betting big bucks. The study also revealed that 4.4 per cent of all adolescents between the ages of 12-19 have a gambling problem.
“With every compulsive gambler, five or six people are affected,” says Ash. “Compulsive gamblers constantly lie and their denial is so huge that they never want to admit or tell anyone they have a problem.”
Felipe says he can see the truth in Ash’s words: “I think I’m addicted,” he says. “I don’t have to go gamble right now, but I don’t think I could stop going for any particular length of time.”
Metro Toronto Police say addictions aren’t the only complications. There are also problems with cheating, theft and allegations of people taping the pot.
But the three students from Ryerson agree that charity casinos can be a lot of fun.
“It’s a great time amongst friends,” says Bailey. “I would never go by myself, but when there are four or five guys going, you enjoy the teasing back and forth.”
Felipe agrees, “If the people at the table are fun and can take jokes and the dealer can joke around with the players, then blackjack is worthwhile,” he says.
But interested first-time gamblers should heed the warnings.
“Never bring a bank card wth you, only bring what you are willing to lose,” says Bailey. “Look at it as a night out on the town so that if you break even you walk away feeling good.”
“Expect to lose,” says Moretto. “The first couple of times you go, bring $15-$20 and don’t count on winning it back.”
Before leaving the casino for the night, Bailey talks to the casino organizer in hopes of snagging a used deck of cards since they throw out 270 decks per three day event. The man tells him to come back the next night when they throw all the decks in the garbage.
The streets are quiet on the way back to residence. It’s 2 a.m. and all three guys have class early the next morning. Lamenting over his $15 loss, Bailey turns to the other two, lights up a wine-tipped cigar, smiles and asks, “Who’s up for some poker when we get back?”
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