About once a month, children are left alone in vehicles in B.C. casino parking lots while their parents gamble, according to B.C. Lottery Corporation documents obtained by the CBC through an access to information request.

The BCLC documents, which it took the CBC four years to obtain, contained details of thousands of incidents of alleged wrongdoing at B.C. gaming facilities, including dozens of cases of alleged child abandonment.

The documents show that between November 2002 and September 2004 there were 23 cases of children abandoned at casinos, or an average of one case per month.

Among those cases was a four-year-old found alone in a vehicle outside the Great Canadian Casino in Coquitlam in February 2003.

In June of the same year, at the Gateway Casino in Burnaby, a four-year-old was heard screaming inside a van. Both parents were banned from the casino for one year.

In December, two children thought to be ages one and two were found abandoned in a car.

In August 2004 a child believed to be three or fours years of age was found in a car in the parking lot of the Great Canadian Casino in Coquitlam. The police were not called because the parents lied about why the child was left alone.

"One a month is too many, one a year is too many. Obviously, we need to take seriously the security in the parking lot as well as inside the facility," said Paul Smith of the BCLC.

One young woman, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her family, vividly remembers being abandoned on a bench outside a casino by her baby-sitting aunt, a problem gambler, when she was seven years old.

"I was definitely scared, hungry and thirsty and confused," she said. "I didn't know what we were doing there so late at night."

Parents who leave their children in vehicles are typically barred from the casino for a year, and they will also be flagged at other facilities, according to the BCLC.

BCLC has contacted the Ministry of Children and Family Development in some cases of suspected child abandonment during the last five years, media spokeswoman Robin Cook told the CBC on Friday morning, and is currently reviewing its practices with the ministry.

And Smith said that: "More recently we've had some discussions with children and family services. They've indicated an interest in being able to attend the incidents, so we're kind of working out policy that would support that ability to contact [the] direct service provider to children and family services to make sure they're involved."

But experts such as Garry Smith of the Alberta Gaming Research Institute at the University of Alberta say there are few mechanisms in place to stop the parents if they start gambling again.

One vocal opponent of gambling expansion in B.C. said he is not surprised growth in the industry has led to more problems.

"I get complaints from as far as Hong Kong asking me how to help the people who are addicted to gambling," said Bill Chu of the Multicultural Coalition Against Gambling Expansion.

"There are people that fail to take into account the safety and welfare of their children in favour of other activities," Paul Smith said. "That's not right and it's certainly not a behaviour we condone by any means.… In fact, we take it very seriously and, within the limits of authority that we've got, send a message that says that behaviour isn't accepted."

The B.C. Lottery Corporation did not provide statistics as to whether any parents have ever been charged.