NORTH DELTA, B.C. — A North Delta woman launched a lawsuit against the B.C. Lottery Corporation this week alleging the company's self-exclusion program failed to help her curb her gambling addiction.
North Delta is a distinct community located in British Columbia, Canada, about 20 miles from Vancouver.
Joyce May Ross filed a civil suit in B.C. Supreme Court Tuesday alleging negligence and breach of contract by BCLC and two Lower Mainland casinos for failing to stop her from entering the two facilities and gambling away more than $300,000.
Ross has made headlines this week as the first person to ever sue the lottery corporation for not stopping her from gambling.
The 54-year-old self-employed businessperson started gambling around 1999 and by 2005 she was doing so on a daily basis, sometimes spending more than $1,000 a day.
According to court documents filed this week, in June 2007, after suffering significant losses at both Fraser Downs and Cascades casinos, Ross, feeling like she had lost any control over her gambling, went back to Fraser Downs to sign up for the BCLC Voluntary Self-Exclusion program.
The program allows people who feel they have a problem with gambling to sign up to exclude themselves from B.C. casinos.
Participants in the program are photographed and sign a contract willingly barring themselves from gaming facilities for a period of six months to three years.
Ross signed up thinking if she entered a casino in the future she would be escorted out by security. However, after a few weeks of staying away from gambling, she successfully entered and gambled at a Victoria casino. A few weeks after that, she has back gambling at Fraser Downs and Cascades.
She claims that during the three years she was in the program, she lost about $331,000.
Ross is seeking damages and restitution of the money she lost after joining the program.
In my humble opinion, this woman is a victim of her own stupidity. True, the BCLC should have kicked her out, but if she didn't go to the casino in the first place, she would not have lost $331,000. I would have ruled in favor of BCLC on these grounds.
What this woman was looking for was someone to be her conscious. She knew that she had a problem and didn't want to do what was needed to kick the habit. She didn't want to tell herself no and stick to it, so she unrealisticly expected the casinos to do that for her. When does personal accountability come into play?
And she would have sued them if they escorted her out against her will too.
This lady is a Schmuckette, a Schmuckerina, a Schmucka-lucka-ding-dong.
If she was President her name would be Schmuckraham Lincoln.
She could be a Czar of some massive bureaucracy if she lived in this country. She knows the spirit of our government to a T.
I can't go on.
Talk amongst yourselves.
Typical case of shifting blame and failing to take responsibility for ones own actions. A self help/outside help program is only as good as what
an individual puts into it. A first step is determining there is a problem, the next is taking steps to avoid repeating past mistakes...one of those
steps was she enrolled in a program she thought would **do it all for her**. The problem with that is, she didn't have to do much...sign up
and leave it up to someone else to be her watchdog and make sure she didn't step foot in a casino?
The fact she was back on the prowl after only a few weeks indicated she needed more than an self-exclusion program and now she wants to sue?
Imagine the fresh start someone could make with $331,000! Too bad, in her hands, it would soon be categorized as: Gambling losses.
The blame for breach of contract and negligence lays heavily on her. I'm sure the program in no way assumed 100% responsibility and made no
promise of success without the active involvement, determination and effort of the contract participant.
This is a prime example of redirecting responsibility. The very idea that she is pursuing a lawsuit says to me she is nowhere near cured of her
addiction. A judgement in that amount is only fuel for further desperate moves by other addicts, including herself. She doesn't deserve one dime.
In fact, let her spend some time in jail for frivolous lawsuits and extortion - that'll cure her problem for awhile.
personally she ought to lose her business, laughed out of court and be commited to the local mental hospital with nutting but four rubber walls and a 30 watt builb over head
If she was in the program and they caught her in the casino, she would have been escorted out by security and fined $5,000 for each occurrence. They are probably scrambling to find her (picture) on the casino's video tapes. It does say that she has to be identified (reason for the picture). This will indeed be interesting. Also, while in the program, she couldn't have won anyway. People who are in the program are not eligible to win jackpots.
Yeah...... if you have a gambling addiction, then WTF are you doing gambling in the first place?!?! You need to stop you moron, or get help to stop. Don't keep gambling. Obviously you are bad at it if you keep loosing. Save some of that gambling money and buy a clue that you are a rotten gambler and have no business gambling in the first place. Seeing stories like this just re-affirms my belief of retards gone wild.
Participants in the program are photographed and sign a contract willingly barring themselves from gaming facilities for a period of six months to three years.
If they added some jail time for anyone caught not filling the terms of the contract, it might be incentives to those who sign it.
Good point RJOh, the casino should sue her for breach of contract.
In her desperation suing may bring in some cash to fuel her gambling addiction. Who else will she blame on of her behaviors?
Well, it sounds as though this woman has been VERY successful in her business life -- she obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to have lost them via gambling thus far. Maybe the cure is for her to absorb herself in the work that she is successful in; a distraction from going to gambling organizations where she loses much money. Maybe she could develop a DAILY habit that distracts her for hours of time when she is outside of her business, one that doesn't cost much though.
I don't know how to cure a gambling problem. I do believe that when these pictures are taken that often times people may later become depressed and eat unhealthy foods; which would cause them to become obese -- unrecognizable from their old photograph! The picture is the only thing that revolving security staff have as basis.
I struggle with self disciplines too, though not in the area of gambling. I don't think I'd ever sue any organization over my not being able to regularly discipline myself though, I don't understand the logic ... after all, nobody except my self is my keeper. If I'm a poor keeper, then that is my personal life long woe to allow to continue however long! The aim is learning to love self enough to block pains on self. It's easier said than daily performed.
What self disciplines do you struggle with HaveABall?
Don't tell me, I know.
You want to Clog Dance with strange, drunk, hillbilly men with long beards, right?
I knew it.
WHY would you compare this person to Abraham Lincoln? That's just WRONG on so many levels.
I think she should gamble herself into bankruptcy and homelessness, that'll cure her addiction to gambling.