If the operator of the seniors' bingo that was busted on Galiano Island checked the Solicitor General's Service Plan, she would see that the Ministry has yet to determine standards for the timeliness of concluding investigations and responding to complaints. The Campbell government projected gambling revenues of more than $1 billion by 2007-08, up from $414 million in 2000-01. Twelve seniors playing a social bingo game must be a big threat to that cash grab, so big that it needs to send investigators to stay in five star accommodations on Galiano while cracking down on penny ante operations.

Last year the goals, objectives, strategies and outcome measures related to gambling in the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General's Service Plan were changed. Public satisfaction was quietly dropped from the list of objectives.

The 2002-03 Service Plan linked goals to the infamous "New Era Document" from which it quoted: "Stop the expansion of gaming that has increased gambling addiction and put new strains on families." It then set out four objectives:

As an outcome measure the 2002-03 Plan undertook to establish a base rate of satisfaction with government's management of gaming, to show improvement in 2003-04, and to show 5% improvement over 2003-04 in 2004-05. In 2003-04 the Plan repeated the promise of establishing a base rate for measuring public satisfaction with government's management of gaming, although the target was missed in 2002-03 and both the 2002-03 and 2003-04 Annual Service Plan reports completely ignored it. Perhaps the indicator reflected badly on the government since it was dropped from the Service Plans for 2004-05 and 2005-06.

In 2004-05 the Ministry changed its objectives and measures for gambling to:

The revised Plan noted that each 0.1% reduction in problem gambling behaviour means 1,000 fewer people with such problems. Instead of harassing a few seniors at a social bingo event, perhaps the Solicitor General could focus on the social disruption caused by the aggressive marketing of gambling, which attempts to maximize gambling revenue for government. The way Campbell puts it is that the Lottery Corporation is allowed to match services to the market. What would happen to that market if advertising of gambling was outlawed and replaced with award winning ads on how to get help for gambling problems? Under the Campbell government, ads that push lottery tickets won advertising industry awards. The government has become addicted to gambling revenues and it doesn't have the moral fiber to admit that it broke another campaign promise.