 Wow! I have a whole new respect for our St. Albert MLA, Ken Allred. I wish everyone could have sat in on the public accounts committee meeting the ADIGI team attended today. It was gripping. Members of AGLC were brought in to answer questions posed by various MLAs. Ken Allred, in particular, posed some very interesting questions, not unlike the questions Gisele has been asking AGLC for 9 years now.A moment that demonstrated AGLC’s classic ability to produce vague answers happened when Ken posed a question about AGLC’s reporting method.In 1999, AGLC changed their reporting method to include all credits played in the machines. Ken asked them why they did this. What was their reason for changing the way they report the figures? In her book, Gisele expresses why she believes they chose to do this. She shows clearly how it benefits them and she explains why we as Albertans should be extremely concerned about this. Their answer was, of course, vague. They stated they wanted to ‘show credits played’but they didn’t say why this was helpful (which, to Albertans it is not. In my opinion, it helps AGLC to create an illusion but it doesn’t serve the public.) Another issue that came up had to do with the new machines AGLC purchased in 2003. Research was requested by concerned officials and in 1998 a public report was produced and one of the conclusions drawn was that gaming machines should be slowed down. Faster play equals greater losses. When Gisele searched for this report, she was told it could no longer be located.Worse than this, the new machines AGLC brought in 2003 were FASTER not slower.They completely disregarded measures that have been proven to help problem gamblers. And it’s not hard to figure out why. Faster machines = more profit. AGLC is bringing in new machines once again. They stated that their reasons for this were because they have a difficulty finding parts for the current machines, machines have a lifespan of 7 years and players are looking for new games. That was such an interesting response. I would love to ask them who these players are. Show me these requests please. Later in the meeting, Ken Allred brought back the question about the reporting method. Again he asked why they chose to change their reporting methods. This time AGLC gave a different answer. They said that actually, they had no idea why that change in accounting was made and that in fact, the new auditor general has been investigating this also. They stated that they are currently researching this question and since none of them were there during the year it was changed, they have no idea why the reporting method is now different. Ken Allred also fired a question about payout percentage and asked whether or not it is true that the machines are programmed to pay back $0.69 on every dollar. He of course received the same robotic response Gisele has received for 9 years. (insert robot voice here) Player behaviour is to blame for this discrepancy. We are not responsible for this inconsistency. And the piece de resistance...Ken asked AGLC if they would provide the CASH IN and CASH OUT figures for VLTs and slot machines for years 1994 –present. AGLC said YES!!! Say what? Gisele has been asking for those figures for 9 years and they finally agreed to give them? Now the waiting game begins. Time will only tell whether or not they will follow through with that promise. Stay tuned my friends. |
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