Casinos in Alberta, Canada can play blackjack three hours longer, from 10 a.m. until 3 a.m. or a total of 17 hours, under new rules now adopted by the provincial gaming and liquor commission.
The new expanded rules are not sitting well with some charities that hold casino fund-raising nights will be adversely affected. The old rules allowed casinos, including charity casino nights to offer blackjack for only 14 consecutive hours. There are potentially 7,500 charitable organizations that could be affected by the change.
Asking volunteers to stay up the extra hour will be problematic, according to Jarrett Campbell, president of the Oliver Community League, quoted by the Edmonton Journal. “It’s always tough to find volunteers and this is going to make it likely tougher, I would imagine,” he said.
Often such volunteers are seniors, for whom asking to stay up until 3 a.m. is an imposition.
The impetus to keep blackjack playing open more hours actually came from players, who asked for it when they were polled.
So far, no casinos have actually expanded their hours of blackjack.
