Nova Scotia's finance minister is postponing a decision about a controversial gambling game that is earning less profit than expected. Finance minister Graham Steele said on September 4th, 2009 that he wants to consult first with stakeholders before decided whether to permanently stop the gaming operations of electronic keno as anti-gambling groups recommend. In high-speed electronic keno, gamers bought numbered tickets for draws every 5 minutes.
Players can be up to $10 every game. The game of electronic keno was launched on March 2nd, 2009 at 180 gaming locations around Nova Scotia. In the first 4 months, it only earned $700,000 -$1.6 million less than expected, according to a report released by the Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation.
The gaming corporation stated that cancelling keno now would cost about $3.5 million to write-off gaming equipment and other assets. But the report stresses that it is still the early days, stating the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC) expects electronic keno to break even by March 2010 because of a summer and fall advertising campaign.
The gaming corporation also stated that there has not been enough time to study the social effects of keno. Critics worry that electronic keno will create more gaming addicts. Even before the game was launched, the Nova Scotia Gaming Foundation called on the Tory government of the day to change its decision. In February 2009, as an opposition MLA, Steele stated that he considered the introduction of the game as a mistake.
Steele said that keno possess the same characteristics of VLT's and it has taken them years to get to the position of being very careful about what is happening with VLT's. He added that the whole thing seems to be a wrong move and will only affect a lot of individuals.
A study about the game in June 2009 showed that several pubs and restaurants around Nova Scotia reported that they only have an average of ticket sales of less than $20.
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Louis Blechdom
