CALGARY -- Police are investigating after a three-year-old girl was left alone in a car at a Calgary casino Monday night.

The girl is now in the care of social services after she was found alone in a car at Casino Calgary about 7:30 p.m.

Insp. Geoff Gawlinski said the girl was in the vehicle for 10 to 15 minutes before fire crews arrived and her father or male guardian came out of the casino.

“The fire department attended and as they were going to make entry the parent showed up,” he said.

“And the child was seized by social services.”

He said it’s not known why the child was left in the vehicle and the investigation is ongoing.

It’s not the first time a child was taken into protective custody after being left alone at a casino.

In March 2009, a 21-month-old boy lightly dressed was found cold and crying after being abandoned in a car outside a casino for six hours while his father gambled.

The boy’s 50-year-old father was arrested at the Silver Dollar Casino and charged with child abandonment.

katie.schneider@sunmedia.ca