Montrealers clearly wouldn’t be winners if Loto-Québec were given the green light to open its arcade at the Bell Centre, the regional health department said in a statement obtained by La Presse.
Posted at 5:00 am.
The gaming lounge project on the site of the Taverne 1909 restaurant, a four-story building next to the Bell Center where Loto-Québec planned to install 350 slot machines, represents a “significant change” to the gaming offering “in one of the busiest Areas of Montreal,” emphasizes Public Health in a detailed statement of almost 40 pages. The announcement has been out for over a month.
“We did a full risk analysis,” explains Mylène Drouin, Montreal’s public health director, in an interview with La Presse. And we come to a clear conclusion: the project presented poses risks to the health of the population, risks sufficient to prevent us from recommending this project. »
“The Loto-Québec project is likely to reach and introduce a significant number of at-risk players to the game, with associated health impacts that we are aware of,” writes researcher Jean-François Biron, who wrote his opinion in collaboration with Authors include other renowned researchers, notably Sylvia Kairouz from Concordia University and Annie-Claude Savard from Université Laval.
“It is a project that can promote entry into the game,” emphasizes Ms. Drouin. All of the packaging that goes into this show can give a false sense of security to the people who are going to be on it. »
“Area with very high accessibility”
As for the planned reduction of video lottery terminals (ALV) that Loto-Québec proposes to sell its project, this does not change the situation at all, the report concludes. The state-owned company proposed moving 350 machines from the Montreal casino to this new arcade, but also removing about 500 machines spread across the island of Montreal.
The researchers modeled all the VLTs on the island on a map using sophisticated software and simulated the contribution of an arcade. The Bell Center project would move the city center to a “highly accessible” zone, while Loto-Québec’s proposed equipment reductions do not significantly reduce offerings elsewhere on the island.
INFOGRAPHICS THE PRESS
Accessibility to VLTs by sector of Montreal as of May 2023
INFOGRAPHICS THE PRESS
Accessibility to VLTs by sector of Montreal was simulated taking into account the gaming lounge project in the city center
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“The idea of this modeling is to ask ourselves whether the change in the overall offer is better than the status quo or whether it improves physical access to the game,” summarizes Mylène Drouin. And the answer is clear: “We are removing devices, but we are moving them to a place where every machine runs the risk of attracting more players, including risky players.”
In addition, a gaming lounge associated with the Montreal Canadiens environment establishes a “dynamic of normalization” of gambling and money.
This is because a large part of Montreal’s population of all generations adores the team, some of whose players have left their mark on history. The Bell Center is also an important popular cultural and entertainment venue. In this context, it is very likely that more people will become familiar with electronic gaming devices in this institution.
Excerpt from the Montreal Public Health study
Consequently, Public Health not only recommends the establishment of an arcade in collaboration with the CH Group, but rather encourages Loto-Québec to “further reduce the number of ALV locations, as observed in Montreal since 2017, by doing so stop.” Issuing operating licenses for video lottery machines (ALV). Demand for this type of “street corner” game is down significantly, says Ms. Drouin.
“We need to continue this momentum. »
More broadly, the opinion also recommends the creation of an independent body to monitor gambling and gaming in Quebec, which would have access to all data and could carry out analyzes “allowing to educate decision-makers.”