Report NOVA SCOTIA
Casino Nova Scotia, Sydney – This casino is located on Cape Breton Island which has lured visitors for thousands of years. The island offers a host of historical sites and cultural events and is perfect for whale watching and scuba diving. It is open until 3am Monday to Wednesday and 24 hours for the rest of the week and has a restaurant and lounge. It has 299 slots and 11 table games.
VLTs The Atlantic Lottery Corporation acts as the NSGC’s agent in operating both ticket and video lottery programmes in the province.
The NSGC has been offering ticket lotteries since 1976 and the products are operated by the Atlantic Lottery Corporation. Tickets include national draw games such as Lotto 6/49 and Lotto Max, plus regional draw games like Bucko, Salsa Bingo, Keno Lottery, Twist and Tag, Scratch and Win games and breakopen tickets plus sports games like
Pro.Line.
Instant tickets are sold for $1 to $7 and $10 to $20 and there are more than 1,000 lottery retailers in Nova Scotia. They are currently paid a base commission of five per cent on sales of all lottery tickets (excluding breakopen tickets where they are paid 12.5 per cent) and the ALC regularly provides incentive programmes which reward retailers who achieve targeted sales increases.
In 2011/12 ticket lotteries saw annual revenues of just over $207m with a net income of $35.8m.
In 1991, VLTs were legalised and initially they were permitted in corner shops, laundrettes and other neighbourhood businesses. In 1993 the government restricted them to age and liquor controlled establishments and between 1993 and 1998 the number of VLTs and their revenues grew steadily.
In 1998 the Video Lottery Terminal Moratorium Act was introduced which limited the number of VLTs to this province to 3,234 (excluding VLTs on First Nation sites) and this is still in effect today.
In 2000 Nova Scotia then became the first jurisdiction in North America to introduce four features on VLTs designed to provide reality checks to encourage responsible gaming behaviour. These newer VLTs were replaced from May 2001.
In 2005 an extensive research project was undertaken on a Responsible Gaming Device which was attached to VLTs and required the player to insert a card to
February 2013 PAGE 126
In 1991, VLTs were
legalised and initially they were permitted in corner shops, laundrettes and other
neighbourhood
businesses. In 1993 the government
restricted them to age and liquor controlled
establishments and between 1993 and
1998 the number of VLTs and their
revenues grew steadily.
play. Over 50 VLTs were tested which allowed players to track their VLT play in terms of money spend and time spent on the machines.
The findings were promising and showed responsible gaming features were working and the NSGC decided to see if these features could be available on all VLTs in Nova Scotia.
Since 2005 under Nova Scotia’s First Gambling Strategy the VLT hours of operation were also reduced with a shut off time for all machines now at midnight regardless of opening times of the establishment. Meanwhile 800 VLTs were removed from retail locations on November 1 2005 with a further 200 machines later removed. This reduced the number by around 30 per cent taking it from 3,234 to 2,234.
In 2006 the games were slowed by 30 per cent and the ‘stop’ button feature was disabled on all Nova Scotia VLTs.
In 2007 the ALC released a RFP on behalf of NSGC inviting technology suppliers to propose new technology solutions for an IPCS.
Canadian company Techlink was chosen and the implementation of the IPCS system now called Gameplan was completed with a province wide rollout in the summer of 2010.
Gameplan is a card based responsible gambling tool which means through the use of RGD players had access to five information tools – history information on money spent and time played, play activity information, ability to set a spend limit, ability to set a play time limit and the ability to stop play immediately for 24, 48 or 72 hours.
There are two components to the system – one is the stand alone enrolment device which is installed in the VLT establishment and the second is the player interface incorporated into each VLT.
When the player enrols a unique player account number is generated from the information the player provides and then players can either obtain an ID card by scanning in a government issued ID card or by ‘light enrolment’ which requires no ID.
All VLTs, including those in First Nation sites, were activated with Gameplan and as from April 2012 the NSGC implemented a mandatory enrolment of the system for all players in Nova Scotia.
Deborah Macpherson, Executive Assistant to the President and CEO at Techlink said: “The year 2005 was a milestone year for not only the Canadian gaming market, but the entire gaming industry. In collaboration with Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation and ALC, our player card
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