Led by a savvy oil magnate and indignant clergymen, a backlash against Alberta's most lucrative form of gambling is spreading like a prairie brush fire.
The crusaders are preparing a petition drive to force a referendum on whether Calgary should get rid of its 1,200 video lottery terminals, a cousin of electronic slot machines.The lottery terminals, known as VLTs, are branded by critics as the crack cocaine of gambling because of their potential to cause addiction. The pace of play is rapid, no skill is involved, and the machines are easily accessible in bars and hotels across the province.
If residents of Alberta's biggest city pull the plug on VLTs, it would be the first time any major jurisdiction in Canada voted to jettison an entrenched gambling industry.
"People are going to be watching Calgary right across this country," said Jim Gray, the oilman coordinating the petition drive.
Gray and his allies hope to embolden gambling opponents nationwide at a time when cash-strapped provincial governments are increasingly tempted by revenues from casinos, lotteries and VLTs.
Alberta is a fitting battleground. It has the highest per-capita wagering of any province - $940 annually for each adult - and the highest portion of government revenues derived from gambling - 3.7 percent.
It also has the most feisty anti-gambling lobby, led by Gray and Calgary's new Roman Catholic bishop, Frederick Henry, who vows to "trash or banish" VLTs.
Alberta Premier Ralph Klein accused church leaders of hypocrisy earlier this month for assailing VLTs while accepting government grants raised from gambling.
His tactics backfired. A Ukrainian Catholic church in Calgary took up Klein's dare and returned an $80,000 government check, saying it would do its own fund-raising to build a community center.
"If you've got God on your side, you get by," said the Rev. Rendy Yackimec, the church's pastor.
The controversy has been troublesome for Klein, a deft politician who has remained popular despite drastic spending cuts that turned a big deficit into $1.4 billion surplus.
Gray, a longtime Klein supporter who has broken with the premier over gambling, says Alberta installed more than 5,000 VLTs in 1992 without properly assessing their impact.
"This so-called free money came tooling down the track just as they were trying to cut spending," said Gray. "They didn't study it very hard."
Gray, 64, is chairman of Canadian Hunter Exploration and has transformed a conference room atop his company's Calgary skyscraper into an anti-VLT war room. There are wall charts tracking gambling revenues, and stacks of reports probing the evils of VLTs.
To get the issue on October's municipal election ballot, Gray and his allies need to get 80,000 signatures - 10 percent of Calgary's population. With dozens of corporate and church leaders offering to help, he is confident he can get the job done.
The pro-VLT lobby - mostly hotel and bar owners - is mounting an ad campaign in defense of the machines, saying a ban will force a tax hike and spawn an underground VLT industry run by criminals.
"Taking VLTs out of Calgary because a few gamblers have a problem is like banning whisky because we have an alcohol problem," said Louis Perreault, chairman of Hospitality Alberta.
Perreault's group also questions why churches are denouncing VLTs when they eagerly raise money from bingo.
Church leaders say some forms of gambling are tolerable but not VLTs.