Industry Reports

Grand Villa Casino Pours CA$50K Into Burnaby Mental Health Battle

Casino venues can offer their support in many shapes and forms but Grand Villa Casino wants to go above and beyond in sharing its potential with noble causes. Thanks to GatewayGIVES, the special program managed by Gateway Casinos and Entertainment the casino venue is going to provide Burnaby Hospital with a brand new mental health and substance use area. In a way, this is yet another boost to the community.

Corporate giving programs have a lot to offer and Burnaby is going to learn more about it in the foreseeable future. The new collaboration between the casino venue management and the Burnaby Hospital Foundation is going to span over the following several years. Through it, the facility would see improvement related to mental health research and helping people in need of support. Since Burnaby Hospital has helped locals in many ways, Gateway Casinos is willing to show its appreciation.

Casino Supports Burnaby Hospital

Lisa Mak, General Manager of Grand Villa Casino, stated that the partnership would reinforce the positive impact of the casino location. Players health, as well as the community well-being, is vital for the management. Over the following three years of operation, the collaboration would bring CA$50,000 for the support of individuals with mental health issues and substance use.

It is true that said individuals need special support in these trying times which could not be achieved with traditional practices. The local emergency room is able to help them to some extent, but it lacks the special element crucial for people experiencing mental health struggles.

This is what the new special zone would have to tackle once it commences operation. It is projected to feature special equipment facilitating the process. This is not the first time when the casino operator has supported the local hospital both financially and with ideas for improvement. Kristy James, Chief Executive Officer of the foundation expressed her appreciation of the idea. She also pointed out that the addition of this new zone is going to ease hospital work down the road.

Mental Health and Substance Use Special Zone

GatewayGIVES is among the main supporters of every community hosting a Gateway Casinos venue. As many as 27 cities and towns fuel it across British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario and the benefits are mutual for all parties involved. The results of this collaboration would be visible in the upcoming three years of operation. The first days of March saw a curious turn of events for the casino venue in Burnaby.

British Columbia Lottery Corporation was notified by whistleblowers that playing cards that had to be destroyed had somehow remained intact. Shredding company ShredWise was supposed to take care of them and render them useless, as this is a standard procedure mandatory for all casino venues in the province. However, in this case, the third-party company failed to meet the expectations.

Soon after that, the gambling corporation issued a change of rules that would see casino operators taking care of the shredding on their own. No third-party help would be needed, possibly eliminating the risk of breach of regulations. Upon finding out about the situation, British Columbia Attorney-General David Eby stated that such failure is putting at risk the casino field integrity.