As published on page A1/A2 on November 4, 2005
VLT opponent's policy crusade comes up snake eyes with Volpé
Finance minister says province has no intention of changing its policy
By Kathy Kaufield
Telegraph-Journal
The New Brunswick government won't reduce the number of video lottery terminals or their hours of operation anytime soon, says Finance Minister Jeannot Volpé.
In fact, the province won't change its VLT policy at all in the near future unless another jurisdiction makes a "major" change that the government feels it must follow.
"We believe that what we've got now is working," Mr. Volpé said Thursday. "I think we are ready to keep what we've got unless there is major change somewhere that could be done that could improve what we've got."
New Brunswick's finance department is reviewing its entire gambling policy, including discussions on VLTs and racinos. The government promised the review after Saint John resident Tim Smith, a former VLT addict, staged a hunger strike at the legislature earlier this year.
This week, Nova Scotia pulled the plug on 800 VLT machines as part of Premier John Hamm's responsible-gaming strategy.
Mr. Volpé said the province won't follow suit at this point and neither will they reduce the hours of operation of the machines.
The news didn't come as a surprise to Mr. Smith but he said he still feels deceived by Mr. Volpé and the provincial government for promising him they'd seriously review their policy so that he would end his hunger strike. Mr. Smith suggested reducing the number of machines and their hours of operation. He'd like to see the machines run only from 6 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. as opposed to from 10 a.m. to 2:30 a.m..
Mr. Smith, who went on two hunger strikes this year to push for changes to the policy, said he doesn't believe the province actually did a review.
"They reneged on everything... They didn't do a thing. Nothing," Mr. Smith said. "I put my life on the line. I put my child in care and could have died either one of those two times to save somebody else's life and they didn't even want to discuss it. To me that is absolutely sickening."
He claimed more people are committing suicide and resorting to crime because of addiction to VLTs.
On Thursday, Mr. Volpé described the gaming review as more of an information-gathering exercise.
"It's more for, I would say, discussion or information purposes that all the work has been done. We've done our work as a department to bring all the details of what's needed to be known," he said. "Now it's a question of are we doing anything with it or just leaving it the way we are, keeping the status quo."
He said the work on the VLT portion of the gambling policy is complete.
"We are just looking at what the recommendation should be or if there is any recommendation that will come out," he said.
Last spring, Mr. Volpé said the province would consider holding public hearings on VLTs in the province. Now he says there's no need for them because the government doesn't have any plans to present for input.
He said New Brunswick has a lower addiction rate than Nova Scotia and prior to the removal of 800 machines there, also had fewer of machines per capita.
Other province are changing their policies on VLTs. Newfoundland announced a plan this spring that would reduce the number of VLTs in the province by 15 per cent over five years. Quebec is removing more than 2,500 VLTs from neighbourhood bars and putting them into centralized gaming parlours.
Ontario has imposed a moratorium on casino expansion, British Columbia has said it won't put VLTs in bars and lounges and Alberta has set a goal to reduce the number of locations with VLTs up to 15 per cent. In Nova Scotia, the government has said it plans to reduce the number of VLTs and their hours of operation, but is not considering a ban.
Manitoba plans to add to its stock of VLTs.
![New Gaurd at the Legislature[1]](http://static.flickr.com/19/23552244_16f88b1a02.jpg)
With files from Canadian Press.
