Archbishop Smith Tells Schools to Stop Accepting Blackjack Cash

Archbishop Smith

Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith has told local schools to stop running casino fundraisers.

In the Canadian province of Alberta, the Edmonton Catholic School District expects to raise some $6 million over the next year and a half through a series of 83 casino fundraisers. By teaming up with local casinos to provide things like bingo and blackjack card games, the schools are able to generate a significant amount of money to put towards education.

Even though the school district is fully funded by the province, this money is flagged for projects that Alberta Learning will not fund, such field trips for students and charity meal programs for kids in low-income neighborhoods.

“In my experience, it is far easier to raise money by providing workers for a two-day casino every 18 to 24 months than it is to organize hundreds of bake sales,” commented a concerned mother in the local Edmonton Journal.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Edmonton Richard Smith, however, has decided that Edmonton schools will no longer be allowed to raise money by running gambling fundraisers as of October 1 2010. The school has already earmarked the expected funds, and is now facing a serious problem.

Archbishop Smith has expressed a willingness to negotiate in order to give the schools a little breathing space and to work out a “timeline” for his casino fund ban in order to help out “school divisions that rely on revenue from harmful gambling practice.”

Some are questioning the Archbishop’s legal power to override the decisions of the Edmonton school board, but nobody is quite sure how the situation will progress. Since the Archbishop has the legal power to remove the phrase “Catholic school” from any institution that upsets him, the district needs to proceed with care.