by Marty Brown
Northern News Services

NNSL (Feb 24/97) - Gambling in the territories is almost a tradition. Whether it's a dollar scratch-and-win ticket, a night at bingo or a back-room poker game, millions of dollars are spent every year on a chance to make some quick money.

And things are getting worse or better depending who you are -- gambling business or gambling addict.

For years Sport North, the organization that looks after territorial sports, has run on lottery proceeds.

Of its $2 million budget, 85 per cent comes from betting. In fact, the whole North has benefited from the gambling habits of the Western Arctic because that has been the only place you can find Sport North lottery kiosks.

But now Sport North has opened up an office in Iqaluit to serve Nunavut, which means money, a least a million dollars. And it means lottery terminals.

Iqaluit's is up and running, the one in Cambridge Bay is being installed now and by the end of March, Rankin Inlet residents will be betting to their hearts content.

But not everyone is happy. When the Rankin Inlet hamlet council was considering whether they wanted lottery terminals in their town, counsellors there were torn.

"I can see people on social assistance running into trouble but I feel it wasn't up to me to decide how people will spend their money," counsellor Lorne Kusugak said.

Counsellor John Hickes agreed and said that lotteries are a tool for making money. Banning bingos, for example, doesn't mean the money goes on the dinner table.

Many a community event on the verge of being in the hole breaks even by holding a bingo. If a minor hockey team needs airfare to go to a tournament, the logical solution is the same: hold a bingo.

So is there a gambling problem or not?

Gamblers range from no problems at one end to pathological at the other. The American Psychiatric Association says problem gambling is when there's continuous or periodic loss of control over gambling.

One Rankin Inlet gambler who wanted to remain anonymous admitted she loved gambling, took gambling holidays to Las Vegas when she could afford it, and would gamble every day if she could.

"It's a rush," she said, "my heart beats faster."

Clearly, there's a problem. "And yet," says Andy Sibbald, with the addictions at the Department of Health and Social Services, "there are no treatment programs available in the Northwest Territories." However, individuals with multiple addictions do have access to local alcohol or drug services in some communities.

Gamblers Anonymous, for example, has established itself in Yellowknife. The authors of a report on gambling by the National Council of Welfare were surprised at the amount of money Canadians gamble.

And they were surprised at the magnitude of the adult problem gambler population -- possibly as many as 1.2 million -- and the popularity of gambling among young people.

One of the report's recommendations is diverting more than 10 per cent of government gambling revenues to gambling prevention and treatment programs.

But then, it is governments that sanction video lottery terminals, what some call the "crack cocaine of gambling, and a jackpot of revenue."

Will gambling always be with us? Probably, say the experts. Will there always be people who have problems curtailing their habit? Probably. Wanna bet?