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by Rick Bouchard and Duncan Matheson
Published in the New Brunswick Telegraph Journal March 1, 3 and Moncton Times & Transcript March 4, 5
Part 2
In Part 1 of this analysis we looked at the contradictions between what the government says and what it does in regards to New Brunswick gaming policy in general, and specifically on the gambling addictions problem. Public statements by Premier Lord, Minister Mesheau and Minister Robichaud suggest a choice that puts people first. Actual policy implemented by the Lord government puts money first. In other words they talk the talk, but fail to walk the walk.
Why this dichotomy? We don't think the problem is one of bad intentions. Rather, we believe it is structural. More on this in a moment. But first, consider that as with every government that must make gaming policy, the Lord government is constantly faced with a choice. The choice is between money and people.
A government cannot choose to effectively deal with problem gambling without paying a financial price. Problem gamblers account for a large portion of the revenue governments receive from legalized gambling. If you stop the problem gambler, revenues will fall. The contrary is also true. If government policy promotes the generation of revenues, the problem gambler plays an important role in allowing the government to reach its revenue targets.
A lot of good can be accomplished with gaming revenues, but acquiring this money should come with a social responsibility that respects where it came from. The way the system is set up, we're asking the wrong people to respect that social responsibility.
We are convinced that there will be no serious attention paid to problem gambling until fundamental changes are made to the government structure in regards to who makes the decisions on gaming. The problem is that the wrong body within the government is responsible for gaming policy. It is this faulty government configuration that continually derails any good intentions.
This body is the New Brunswick Lotteries Commission and to a certain extent the Atlantic Lottery Corporation. The commission is found in the finance department. Minister Mesheau as the Finance Minister is the chairman of the commission. The other two members are deputy ministers, including the Deputy Minister of Finance. These same deputy ministers sit on the board of directors of the Atlantic Lottery Corporation along with their counterparts from the other Atlantic provinces. Basically these are the people and the bodies that, in private, without public input or scrutiny, make gaming policy in New Brunswick.
These individuals and public bodies play the extremely important and difficult role in our province of generating the revenues that are essential to finance the public programs that we all hold so dear. The finance department is primarily about taxation. The Atlantic Lottery Corporation is primarily about maximizing revenue. If they can make more money this year than last year, that is a good thing. Heads would roll if a lottery corporation lost money.
One can only imagine the enormous pressure on finance to find revenue sources to keep the province going, to balance budgets and to meet the ever increasing costs to finance our Province. This burden falls on the finance department; the Minister and his staff - the same people making gaming policy. So when the Atlantic Lottery Corporation suggests to these public servants that an increase in the percentage payout on VLTs will increase revenues, the message does not fall on deaf ears. One can almost hear the mental processes of justification - after all, we are introducing new technology, clocks and timeouts etc. and the Atlantic Lottery Corporation is the expert and of course, we need the money.
And so this is the context in which the choice is made, it's the money! Its hard to imagine, in spite of the statements made by the Premier and his ministers, how the choice could be otherwise. Which explains why it never is.
It would be interesting to speculate what the reaction would have been if the Deputy Minister of Health and Wellness had been at the table when the Atlantic Lottery corporation suggested the increase in percentage payouts on the VLTs. What if this policy decision had been made publicly? What if the people who had voted on both sides of the referendum had been asked what should have been done?
We're not saying that the public servants involved in gaming policy are bad people who don't care about the social issues. We are saying it isn't fair to place the pressures of finding the money the province needs on them and at the same time expect them to make gaming policy that puts people ahead of the money. Unfair or not, this is what is happening in our Province. The gaming policy makers are in an inescapable conflict of interest.
If people and responsible gaming truly are the priorities for the Lord Government, if it really isn't all about the money, structural changes need to been made. The power to make gaming policy must be given to those whose first priority is the health and well being of the population, not revenue maximization.
If Premier Lord, Minister Mesheau and Minister Robichaud are to avoid the obvious contradictions between their words and the actions of their government in the future, they should either move the gaming policy making power out of finance and away from the Atlantic Lottery Corporation or at least be honest with people and stop making statements about responsible gaming, because their credibility on this issue is wearing very thin.
- Rick Bouchard was Executive Director of the former New Brunswick Coin
Machine Owners Association. Duncan Matheson's firm, Bissett Matheson Communications was the Association's communications counsel.
Part 1 | Part 2
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