At Odds: Gambling and Canadians, 1919-1969 (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: At Odds: Gambling and Canadians, 1919-1969 Garry J. Smith Suzanne Morton , At Odds: Gambling and Canadians, 1919-1969. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003, 245 pp. Legal gambling offerings in Canada were sparse up until several decades ago when circumstances changed drastically as a result of watershed Criminal Code of Canada amendments in 1969 and 1985. Owing to a profusion of new games and gambling outlets, legal gambling now operates on a scale that was unimagined thirty years ago. Recent Statistics Canada (2003) data shows that employment in the Canadian gambling industry has risen from 12,000 workers in 1992 to 42,000 in 2002 and that provincial gambling profits have billowed from $1.6 billion in 1992 to over $6 billion in 2002. Morton provides a backdrop for this Canadian gambling explosion by chronicling how gambling alchemized from a sin, to a vice, to a harmless amusement in a relatively short time frame. No anti-gambling screed, Morton's book is a sweeping analysis of the social, economic and political influences that shaped Canadian gambling attitudes, behaviour and legislation in the half century between the end of World War I and the 1969 enactment of a Criminal Code of Canada amendment that liberalized previously frowned upon activities such as abortion, homosexuality and gambling. [End Page 614] At Odds is a social history that utilizes insights into prevailing social structures and patterns of power and privilege to explain how gambling became legitimized. The cornerstone of Morton's analytical framework is the social values pertaining to gambling, particularly, their derivation and how they were negotiated and maintained. Anti-gambling adherents tended to be influential middle/upper-class, Anglo-Celtic Protestants whose "Victorian" beliefs on morals, economics and social organization dominated Canadian society in the first half of the twentieth century. This faction (typically Protestant religious leaders and conservative and socialist leaning politicians) argued against relaxing gambling laws, because in their view, gambling 1) challenged the sanctity of work, self-discipline and thrift; 2) threatened family stability; 3) diverted recreational spending from legitimate businesses; and 4) created social and economic calamity in the form of crime, bankruptcy, unemployment and suicide. No comparable pro-gambling contingent existed; however, some sectors of Canadian society were more tolerant of gambling including Catholic Quebec, ethnic communities (e.g. Chinese Canadians), as well as vested interest groups that stood to benefit from looser gambling laws (e.g. horse breeders, agricultural societies, fraternal organizations, and newspapers, whose circulation was helped by printing horse racing results). Also softening anti-gambling sentiments in the decade following World War II was "the general secularization of a pluralistic society" (Morton, p 167) as reflected in gradually more permissive public attitudes toward activities such as alcohol consumption, extramarital sex, and Sunday observance. Amid this culture of tolerance, Morton notes how the public discourse on gambling was subtly altered to associate the perceived evils of widespread gambling (e.g. cheating, corruption of public officials, using gambling proceeds to finance criminal activity) with commercial interests and organized crime. The idea promoted was that gambling, in and of itself, was not inherently immoral; rather, it was a neutral activity with good or bad consequences depending on the purity of the players and operator's motives and objectives. In other words, honestly run, socially responsible gambling that advanced the worthy causes espoused by religious, charitable, cultural, and recreational organizations was different from the shadowy world of commercial and illegal gambling and therefore deemed acceptable. Later, the state (both federal and provincial) was added to the list of good causes that could be supported by gambling dollars. This line of reasoning was evident in the discussions leading up to the momentous 1969 Canadian Criminal Code amendment. Morality issues took a backseat to practical and functional concerns such as Canadians' gambling proclivities, the difficulty in policing gambling, and the potential to generate revenues for good works while also keeping taxes down. The association of gambling with charitable fundraising and economic benefits (e.g. job creation [End Page 615] and government revenue generation) effectively neutered morality arguments and helped launch gambling as a powerful social, economic, and political force in Canadian society. Morton's book provides a...