Liberal Senator Larry Campbell joined casino operator's board

Today, I just became aware that Liberal Senator Larry Campbell joined the board of Great Canadian Gaming Corp. last June.

I can't recall reading anything about this in the media when the directors elected Campbell, a former Vancouver  mayor, to the board of B.C.'s biggest casino operator. Perhaps I wasn't paying attention at the time.

Campbell was mayor of Vancouver in July, 2004 and  cast the deciding vote to approve a rezoning application to allow up to 600 slot machines in Hastings Park.

The slot machines would go into a casino owned by—you guessed it—Great Canadian Gaming Corp.

According to Great Canadian's documents filed with securities regulators,  members of the board  were paid between $75,000 and $142,000 in directors' fees in 2007.

The directors were also granted between 30,000 and 65,000 stock options in 2007, which can be exercised at $11.86.

A director can exercise options to buy the stock at that price at any time until March 26, 2012. Normally, people exercise options to buy shares when the share price exceeds the option price.

Great Canadian shares opened at $7 this morning, which means those stock options aren't worth anything today.