The province of Nova Scotia's failed endeavor at electronic keno comes to an end on October 22nd, 2009. The controversial game never made enough profit in Nova Scotia and last month, the provincial government gave a month's notice to all bars and pubs that are offering electronic keno that it was pulling the plug on the whole gaming operation.
That deadline finally struck down on Thursday, meaning that electronic keno will be shutdown sometime this weekend. Finance Minister Graham Steele said that the whole electronic keno game is operated from the Atlantic Lotto Corporation headquarters in Moncton. Steele said that at some point in time, they will just turn off a switch and the game's all over and the screens will just go blank.
The Nova Scotia government previously announced that it is giving all one hundred eighty LCD televisions used in electronic keno-valued at $800 each to schools around the area. The game came under heavy criticism immediately from anti-gambling organizations as being addictive.
To reassure worried anti-gaming groups, the Tory government introduced caps on game spending and the playing time. Whether it was the gaming caps or just the prevailing gaming taste, electronic keno never caught on.
[04-11]
Louis Blechdom
