The gambling industry has hit a roadblock in Abbotsford, B.C., where religious groups are fighting plans to put slot machines in a local bingo hall.

A plan for slot machines in Abbotsford was opposed by religious groups at a town hall meeting Monday.
(CBC)

On Monday night, about 500 people packed a town hall meeting to express their views about slot machines.

Playtime Community Gaming Centres Inc., the company that owns the Abbotsford bingo hall, wants to install slot machines to help reverse the impact of falling revenues from bingo during the last 18 months.

The company bills itself as the largest bingo service provider in British Columbia, serving approximately 600 charity and community groups.
 
But Playtime manager Lincoln Reid said bingo revenues have taken a nosedive.

As a result, slot machines are widely seen as a way not only to keep the bingo hall afloat but also to finance dozens of charities that depend on gambling proceeds for money and are impacted by the falling bingo revenue.

Others take a different view.

Abbotsford resident Michael Kleyn is spearheading the effort to keep slots out of Abbotsford with a coalition of churches.

Despite an expanded bingo hall's charitable function, he said it would be a cancer in the community.

"Basically it creates an addiction in a person to keep playing and playing and playing,'' said Kleyn. "And people will sit at a lottery terminal for 30 hours straight because … they don't want to leave, because they don't want to lose their money,'' he said.