REGINA (Staff) – The Saskatchewan government will give back to communities some of the money taken by video lottery terminals, but is keeping control of where VLTs are located.
Gaming minister Eldon Lautermilch said 10 percent of the net profits of VLTs will be given to Saskatchewan communities to distribute. The method of payment has not been worked out.
But the government will not allow communities to decide whether or not they want VLTs.
The council of Punnichy, a town in south-central Saskatchewan, has asked the government to take away its VLTs.
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federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
Lautermilch rejected the idea.
“It’s not our intention to put a hotel owner in Punnichy at a disadvantage to a hotel owner in a neighboring community,” he said.
Municipal government minister Carol Carson agreed. “You can’t build walls around these communities and say these communities won’t have any and these will,” she said.
Saskatchewan Liberal leader Lynda Haverstock said control of VLTs and gambling should be left in the hands of communities. She said 50 percent of gambling revenues should be handed over to local communities.
Progressive Conservative leader Bill Boyd said the question of whether Saskatchewan people even want gambling in the province has not been answered. “There should be a vote,” he said.
There are now about 3,450 of the electronic gaming machines and that number will be increased to 3,600.
Lautermilch said Saskatchewan’s approach to expanded gambling was “good social policy.” If it allowed businesses to have as many VLTs as they requested, there would be more than 7,000, he said.
Manitoba, with roughly the same population as Saskatchewan, has between 5,500 and 6,000 machines, he said. And in Montana, which has 200,000 fewer residents than Saskatchewan, there are about 12,000 VLTs.
