N.B. gaming falls $9.4M short

The New Brunswick Lotteries and Gaming Corporation missed its revenue targets by more than $9.4 million last year, which was the provincial casino'sfirst year in operation.

Thegaming corporation brought in $138.4 million in 2010-11, its annual report shows.

It had budgeted to bring in $147.5 million.

The shortfall comes a year after the implementation of the province's responsible gaming policy, which resulted in sweeping changes to the video lottery industry.

VLTs are now restricted to age-controlled environments andthe number of VLT sites in the province has been reduced to 300 from 625. The number of VLTs was also reduced to a maximum of 2,000 from 2,650.

The corporation receives the net profits from the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, which operates the video lottery program and traditional lotteries.

Casino $2.2M less than budgeted

The gaming corporation also gets half of the gross revenue of Casino New Brunswick.

The province took in $15.8 million from the Moncton casino, whichopened in May 2010.

That's about $2.2 million short of what had been budgeted.

The former Liberal government had estimatedthe casino would generate $25 million in revenue during its first year.

The report shows that the government's share of net profits from the Atlantic Lottery Corporation also came up short, by about $7.5 million.

Officials with the Atlantic Lottery Corporation would not provide an interview, saying the matter was for the province.

Provincial officials said they were unable to comment at this time.