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A British Columbian woman has filed a lawsuit alleging the B.C. Lottery Corporation's self-exclusion program did not help her to curb her addiction to gambling.

On Tuesday, Joyce May Ross from Delta, British Columbia filed a civil lawsuit in the Supreme Court alleging that BCLC as well as Fraser Downs Casino and Cascades Casino were negligent and in breach of contract for failing to prevent her entering the two casinos and managing to gamble and lose in excess of $300,000 over a period of three years. She is the first person in Canada to sue a gambling corporation for failing to prevent her from gambling.

Ross, 54 and a self employed businessperson had begun to gamble in 1999. She enjoyed gambling but her habit escalated over the years until 2005 she found she was gambling daily. This was costing her as much as $1000 or more in a day. By June 2007 she realized that she could no longer control her habit after suffering considerable losses at both of the two casinos cited in the lawsuit. In desperation, Ross signed up to join the BCLC Voluntary Self-Exclusion program at the Fraser Downs casino in the hope that this would prevent her from further gambling losses.

The program is designed especially for those who realise they have a gambling problem and allows them to voluntarily exclude themselves from casinos in the province of British Columbia. To this end, participants have their photo taken and then sign a contract that gives their consent to be willingly barred from gaming facilities in the province for between six months and three years.

Ross believed that after signing up with the program that she would be prevented from entering a casino, or escorted from the premises by security staff should she manage to enter.

After several weeks had gone by where Ross had managed to voluntarily stay away from casinos and gambling altogether, her resolve lapsed and she visited Victoria Casino where to her surprise she was able to enter and start gambling without being challenged. Soon after that, she returned to Fraser Downs casino and Cascades Casino and was similarly allowed to continue gambling unchallenged.

Her claim is that during the period of three years that she was signed up to the program, she gambled and lost approximately $331,000 in casinos that she was supposed to have been barred from. Ross is pursuing damages through the court and restitution of all the money that she lost following her signing up with the program.