'm advocating that if we are in fact focusing on the kind of activity that puts dirty money into the hands of criminals, that would at least be an area to maintain.
Again, just as I was writing in trying to do this research, the joint force gambling operation in British Columbia was closed down. I thought there was an active joint force operation in Ontario. It turns out that it is now turned into something called pods, and the reason seems to be that gangs and guns are the higher priority.
So not only do the officers who do street-level policing feel that it's not given the priority it needs; they also feel that the local police are losing the expertise to even know what they're looking for.
We did two studies while I was at the Department of the Solicitor General, looking at gaming across the country. In those days I was in Ottawa, so I was riding with the vice guys, and they were pointing out the number of restaurants that had changed hands literally in the course of a game of cards. I was asking the police officer from Toronto whether I could do the same in Toronto, and he said no, they don't drive around and do that kind of law enforcement.
The only explanation I could think of was that again the resources have gone somewhere else. But also, as James or Antonio pointed out, now, with such a proliferation of government-run gambling, there's probably a sense that it's a bit hypocritical to be targeting the illegal operations.
Unfortunately, the illegal operations are not petty-ass things. They're...again, who knows? The question was asked where the largest amount of money comes from. Well, I don't think we should write off gambling. Maybe it's not right up there at the top any more, but it's not piddly-ass.