TORONTO, Ontario – As reported by the Toronto Star: “After sitting down to gamble with mobsters in Woodbridge, several Toronto police officers found themselves ‘owing large’ and turned to crime to pay back their debts, the Star has been told.
…”Former street cop Rick McIntosh, who stepped down temporarily as president of the Toronto Police Association on Sunday, is among those being investigated, sources say.
“…Constable Bill McCormack Jr., the son of former police chief Bill McCormack, was suspended from his post last week amid rumours about the internal affairs probe, which came to light Friday.
“At first, the allegations involved illicit sex with transvestite prostitutes and officers caught in illegal gambling dens, thought to be in downtown Toronto.
“But the heart of the investigation, a source said yesterday, lies north of Toronto in the Woodbridge area of Vaughan, where it’s alleged at least three Toronto officers gambled with organized crime figures.
“The officers carried out alleged ‘money extractions’ from clubs and restaurants in Toronto’s downtown theatre district.
“The alleged reason: to pay off huge play bazaar debts in Woodbridge, Casino Rama and possibly at other legal gambling venues, the source said.
“Other sources indicated that investigators believe smaller bars and restaurants in Chinatown may also have been ‘taxed’ by crooked officers to pay their gambling debts.
“…According to two sources, the alleged involvement of Toronto officers in illegal gambling is minor compared with what the Mounties are really chasing — top mob bosses controlling the gambling trade and other rackets in Ontario and elsewhere…”
CRIME BOSSES HAPPY
VLTs generate 30 per cent of Loto-Quebec’s profits but the corporation wants to reduce the number of machines in poorer areas. CREDIT: CHERYL HNATIUK , GAZETTE
How sweet it must be to be in business and see your chief competitor, after taking over a market from you and expanding the demand for your service, hand that market back to you.
And how much sweeter it must be when you’re the underworld and your competitor is the government, which has legitimized and popularized your illegal business by running it legally and openly for years.
That’s what happened to the underworld this week when Loto-Quebec announced its intention of pulling legal video-lottery terminals out of some of their most lucrative locations.
These are the bars and brasseries in the province’s four largest cities and poor areas elsewhere, where the machines prey on those whose judgment is clouded by ignorance, foolishness, alcohol or desperation.
Over the next three years, the government’s Ingatbola88 gambling corporation will remove its VLTs from 1,142 establishments that currently have up to four machines each.
The bars and brasseries in question are located in Montreal, Quebec City, Longueuil and Laval, and in areas where the average household income is less than $50,000, and there are more than two VLTs for every 1,000 people.
Paradoxically, Loto-Quebec, which is seriously conflicted about its own business, is removing the machines not because they’re not profitable, but because they are. It hopes to combat pathological gambling, especially among poor people, by distancing temptation.
satta matka 