As is the case throughout much of Canada, the story of British Columbia’s modern gaming industry begins in 1969. That’s when the federal government amended the Criminal Code in order to allow the creation of lotteries at both the federal and provincial level. Within a few years, that was amended to give only the provinces themselves that power, and by 1974, BC had joined in a partnership with Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan to create the Western Canada Lottery Foundation.
That arrangement lasted for about a decade before the province decided that they should create their own entity to handle local lottery drawings. That group, founded in 1985, is known to this day as the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) – and it is now the single firm tasked with providing oversight and operating virtually all gambling activity in the province.
A large portion of that work is still focused on lottery games, with BC participating in a number of national lotteries like Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49 as well as offering many local games, like Lotto BC and BC/49. Keno and online lottery games have also been added to the mix as time as gone on.
The BCLC is also tasked with the management of casinos throughout the province. Casino gaming started to become a hot-button political issue in British Columbia in 1997, when two issues intersected: the fact that the government could not balance its budget despite election promises, and a growing concern over the fact that the BCLC was bringing in less revenue than any other provincial gaming group in the country.
When the idea of casino gambling was put forward as a solution to both of these issues, there was tremendous political backlash, and the arguments over whether casinos were ultimately a positive move for BC still exist today. Regardless, the promise of new revenues won out, and the first casino – a riverboat operation known as the Royal City Star, which is no longer in service – was opened in 1999. By that point, BCLC had been given jurisdiction over both slot machines and table games, making it the responsible party for all resort gaming as well as all lottery offerings in the province.
Today, there are a total of 17 casinos located throughout the province, along with a variety of other gambling halls: commercial bingo facilities and “Chances,” a slots and bingo parlor chain. In total, BCLC oversees 36 locations, in what most observers now consider to be a fully mature and saturated market. The largest and best known of these casinos is the River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond, featuring 70,000 square feet of gaming space and a large hotel.
Horse racing is also still offered in British Columbia, through a total of five tracks that are currently in operation. Four tracks offer thoroughbred racing, while Fraser Downs Racetrack in Surrey features Standardbreds. Some of these venues, including Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver, also offer real money slots and other electronic games, turning them into the “racinos” that have become so popular throughout North America.