COMMENTARY

VLTS: Houston, you have a problem

Hey, it’s not about the money.

No, siree, when it comes to VLTS, money is secondary to the Nova Scotia government.

So says Bob Mackinnon, president of the provincial gaming corporation. Their first priority — really — is social responsibility.

What’s that saying about repeating a lie often enough?

Still, no one with a clue believes the above or other rationalizations Mackinnon and others have peddled for years to obscure what’s patently obvious — governments are addicted to VLT revenues.

So obvious, it seems, that many of us sadly have become numb to the continuing cost of that affliction.

I’m referring to the real human pain and suffering of those whose lives get destroyed by their own addiction to gambling.

And VLTS are the proven crack cocaine of that world.

But it seems a lot of us just don’t see it anymore. It’s rarely in the news. Governments long ago stopped funding pesky gambling research that just made them look bad. And VLTS, often stashed in dark corners of drinking establishments and attended by lonely figures robotically flushing away their savings hour after hour, are easy to ignore.

So, thanks to the King’s College journalism school’s investigative workshop.

Its series this past week on VLTS, which concludes today, has provided a tremendous public service. It’s reminded us that our governments’ addiction — two decades strong and counting — continues to wreak havoc, including perhaps half a dozen suicides a year, among affected Nova Scotia families.

The rationalizations from those in charge of hoovering money from people’s pockets are truly breathtaking.

For example, the well worn argument that it’s better governments run gambling rather than someone else, i.e., the criminal element.

Using that logic, why doesn’t government also take over pimping and human trafficking? I’m sure they’d be much more socially responsible about it.

The King’s series showed VLTS are routinely moved out of “over-serviced” locations and relocated to where the gambling corp’s “assets” can be better “optimized.”

I guess euphemisms are handy when you’re “prioritizing” social responsibility.

Because, Mackinnon assures us, the money is definitely secondary.

And all those laws passed in every jurisdiction across Atlantic Canada in recent years, the ones that banned class-action lawsuits against governments by problem gamblers whose lives have been ruined by VLTS?

Why, that’s to protect the taxpayers of those provinces from potentially expensive payouts should one of those lawsuits succeed, don’t you know.

Some might argue it was the socially responsible thing to do.

Governments of every stripe — Progressive Conservative, NDP and Liberal — in Nova Scotia over the last two decades, despite what they may have said before in opposition, have succumbed to the siren song of gambling revenues.

At first, at least, they seemed to feel guilty for doing so.

Money was set aside to research impacts, to at least partly protect those with a predilection for serious addiction.

But as the King’s series showed, that was at best inconvenient, at worst embarrassing.

The last vestige of those efforts — Gambling Awareness Nova Scotia and its $6.6 million in set aside funds — were quietly eliminated by the Liberals in late 2020 and early 2021.

Some may say: Who cares about those stupid enough to lose their money, in some cases all of it, gambling against machines that are programmed to win.

There’s certainly enough lack of empathy for our fellow human beings to go around these days. Frankly, it’s part of what governments addicted to gambling revenues count on.

I’d argue, first, that governments have a moral responsibility not to prey upon their constituents. But beyond that, each life ruined also brings trauma to many lives around them, including family members, friends, coworkers; even, in some cases, the viability of businesses.

In 2020-2021, VLT revenues — in other words, the total amount of gambling losses at these machines suffered by Nova Scotians — totalled $91 million.

Is the Houston government, which has shown it’s not shy about making big investments to improve Nova Scotians’ lives, willing to end the province’s penchant for preying on gambling addicts?