VLTs Being Eliminated

CTV.ca News Staff One thousand video lottery terminals (VLTs) are be taken out of commission in Nova Scotia, ATV News has learned. By this fall, 800 for-profit VLTs will shut down. Another 200 will go by attrition. The province has about 3,200 VLTs, not including those on reserves, with about 375 bars hosting the gambling devices. Royal Canadian Legions and First Nations reserves won't lose their VLTs. There are about 110 Legion VLTs. The remaining terminals won't be allowed to operate after midnight. A formal announcement is coming Wednesday, along with enhanced measures to counter gambling addictions. "It will involve fewer machines, fewer hours of operation. There will be changes made to the machines to make them less addictive," Premier John Hamm, who leads a minority Progressive Conservative government, told ATV News. "I believe it's the correct approach. I believe it will have a good impact on those that are having difficulties with gambling." Nova Scotia has an estimated 7,000 problem gamblers. Bar manager Rob Cromwell says his establishment will survive the loss of some machines, but that might not be true for all of them. "Other places, what they're doing is catering to gamblers and that's the only thing they're catering to," he says. "Atlantic Lotto ... dug their own grave there, giving certain bars 20, 30 machines. That's crazy." Cromwell says it's important the scale-back is done fairly so that smaller operations don't lose all their machines while others get to keep theirs. But anti-VLT advocate Bernie Walsh says the government's move should be seen as a first step. "They're not realizing it's not just the numbers of machines, it's the fact that that any machines are causing enough damage to these people," he says. Walsh says he's concerned that fewer VLTs could lead to violence as gambling addicts fight over access to the remaining machines. ATV News' Marc Patrone says the policy will cost the provincial treasury tens of millions of dollars per year. The Nova Scotia Gaming Corp. put 2003-04 revenues from ticket and video lotteries at $156 million. With a report from ATV's Marc Patrone