Canada: ONTARIO: Number's Up

For six wartime years many a good Canadian had been breaking the Federal gambling laws—in church halls, social clubs, athletic arenas, countless office buildings. Prosecuting authorities had always looked the other way: the gambling had been in "a good cause." The millions of dollars painlessly extracted in Dominion-wide lotteries, raffles and bingo games had bought milk, food, clothing, and even planes for beleaguered Britain.

But last week the party was over. Fearful that this "innocent" gambling might, fall into racketeering hands, Ontario's Attorney General Leslie Blackwell cracked down, said that he would permit only "occasional" bingo games for charitable or religious funds, at a prize limit of $50, and after the prizes had first been offered for sale.

Probably very few Canadians would now be interested. They had been lured by some very lush prizes: a $15,000 ranch or fruit farm "in sunny British Columbia"; a 1946 Lincoln Zephyr; an all-expense trip to Europe or $1,000 in cash; a $12,000 house; $500 Persian lamb coats; refrigerators, washing machines and scads of smaller consolation prizes. Among the most successful bingo operators in Ontario was the Lions Club of Ottawa, which has drawn as many as 8,000 participants to its monthly game in the barnlike Auditorium.

Said Lions' President Jack Kavanagh:

"If the law says no bingo, we won't have bingo." The law had already said so in Alberta and Manitoba. Spang on Attorney General Blackwell's announcement came word that British Columbia would follow suit.