No one will ever win an argument over the appropriateness of using gaming money — the losses borne by gamblers — for government services, community programs and sports organizations.

But it’s shocking the amount of such losses we have come to depend on for services and programs we have come to take for granted. Last year, for example, nearly $658 million from gambling revenue was sucked into provincial government coffers.

Most people will say it’s better the government run gambling operations rather than crooks, loan sharks and bookies, and why shouldn’t the money be used to benefit good causes?

But this latest spin on the way governments use gambling booty has raised a lot of questions about how reliant we’ve becoming on gaming funds.

Skeptics could say, quite rightly, that gaming money has long been a government slush fund and it is free to use it to ease the tax bite or sprinkle it about as it chooses. Many might even say the Gordon Campbell government has done a good job in streamlining grant applications so community groups don’t have to run bingo nights any more and has also strengthened protection for gamblers, provided money for addiction programs and established priorities to make sure worthy projects get the money.

But there is a dark side to this largesse, as many arts groups have figured out this week. There is no certainty to this money — there never has been.

The government is free to make decisions about how to allocate these funds (witness recent decisions to stop funding playgrounds and to go back to yearly funding contracts).

And recently, we learned that the BC Lottery Corp. will raise the weekly limit on its Play Now Internet gambling website from $120 to $10,000. Gamblers are grown-ups, the story goes, and should be able to decide how much they wish to spend/lose.

The question is, are we prepared to give up our addiction to gaming money?

–Tri-City News (Black Press)