By Mark Squibb
The Rotary Club of Waterford Valley is sounding the alarm on gambling addictions and the impact excessive gambling has on individuals and families in the province.
Edwin Hussey has done much of the legwork, compiling data from the 2023-2024 annual Atlantic Lottery reports, the Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation (NLC) and Statistics Canada to form a cohesive whole.
According to the data, the province has a per capita gambling expenditure of $703 — approximately 66 percent higher than the Atlantic Canada average of $423. That includes the sales of Lotto Max, 6/49, breakopen tickets, scratch and win tickets, and games and video machines.
This province is also home to 70 percent more video lottery terminals and 75 precent more lottery retail terminals per capita than the other Atlantic provinces, with about 324 video lottery terminals per 100,000 people and 154 retail terminals per 100,000 people.
If you want to mix alcohol into that equation, residents of drinking age spend $1,102 per capita, 45 percent higher than the Atlantic province average of $758.
“We’re not against gambling,” said Hussey. “We’re against the excess of gambling, and all the problems that arise from it.”
Those problems, said Hussey, include financial hardship, negative impacts on mental and emotional health, and a possible rise in crime as people take desperate actions to fuel their habit.
Hussey said the argument that Newfoundlanders gamble because they earn less than folks in other provinces doesn’t hold water.
According to 2021 Stats Canada numbers, families in this province earn $62,100 annually, on average. That’s higher than averages in Nova Scotia, Quebec, and New Brunswick, and on par with PEI.
“I was getting the argument that Newfoundlanders are gambling for their future, their retirement,” said Hussey. “But we’re not as poor as people think we are. And I found those stats because I was hearing the argument that poor people were trying to win the lotto.”
He said the gambling problem is especially egregious when you consider the rising cost of living and how many families depend on food banks, and suggested government should limit gambling advertising as a means to address the problem.
“Advertising and promotion in the public eye has a lot to do with it,” said Hussey. “For example, cigarettes became a problem, and what did they do? Put them behind the counter and stopped advertising. We are bombarded with advertisements from the liquor stores to the lotto stores. Cut it back, so we’re not bombarded. In a perfect world we’re not going to fix all this. We know this. But we’re wondering why the devil the numbers in our little province are so high compared with the rest.”
Hussey pointed, by way of example, to the UK Parliament, which recently introduced gambling thresholds for vulnerable people, and suggested that local governments could also better educate residents to the dangers of gambling.
He added that while gambling and the sale of alcohol brings revenue to the provincial government, that benefit must be weighted against the harm being done.
The club has submitted its concerns to a number of elected officials and community groups.