The province of Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) has decided to dropped the electronic lottery keno game. The Island's gambling strategy officer said on October 2nd, 2009 that the decision follows Finance Minister Graham Steele's decision on September 21st, 2009 to discontinue the highly controversial electronic keno game.
James Ramsy stated that electronic keno was introduced to Prince Edward Island in the spring and has lost approximately $60,000 since then. Ramsy said that after talking with officials from the Provincial Treasury and the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, they have officially requested that electronic keno be discontinued on Prince Edward Island.
Ramsy added that they have lost that important mass with Nova Scotia choosing to stop the game and they had to study at what that meant for Prince Edward Island. Nova Scotia's NDP government pulled the plug on electronic keno after a study made by the Nova Scotia gaming corporation revealed that revenue from electronic keno had dropped 80% below expectations.
Keno was launched in about one hundred eighty bars and restaurants in Nova Scotia last March 2009. Opponents had argued that keno, which permits gamers to choose the numbers that they want and monitor results on video screen, would further harm gaming addicts in the province.
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Louis Blechdom
