2023-10-11

MONCTON (N.B.) – Atlantic Lottery’s newly released annual report highlights the organization’s key achievements in 2022-23, including returning profit in support of important regional services, sponsoring diverse community activities and advancing its commitment to healthy play.

“Atlantic Lottery is pleased to be able to contribute to our regional economy by returning 100 per cent of profit to the provincial governments,” said President and CEO Patrick Daigle. “In fact, 92 cents out of every lottery dollar stayed in Atlantic Canada in 2022-23 thanks to a combination of prize money, employee salaries and benefits, retailer commissions and regional operations. We were also proud to support many diverse community events over the past year through sponsorship and volunteering.”

The organization returned $492.2 million in profit, including $262.8 million from the Destination line of business and $229.4 million from the Retail and iLottery lines of business. Broken down by province, Atlantic Lottery returned $160.4 million to Nova Scotia, $153.9 million to New Brunswick, $148.6 million to Newfoundland and Labrador and $29.3 million to Prince Edward Island to help fund essential services and programs used by Atlantic Canadians. Atlantic Lottery awarded a further $440.1 million in prizes to winners from across Atlantic Canada, even more than it awarded in the previous year.

Net profit surpassed the budgeted amount in 2022-23 by $32.2 million thanks to strong performance throughout the organization, including the most profitable year to date for Red Shores, which delivered a profit of $5.7 million, as well as through the continued growth on the alc.ca platform, demonstrating the importance of the organization’s evolving online presence.

“While we are pleased by the continued growth in our iLottery business line, we remain concerned about the growing presence of illegal gambling sites in our region,” Daigle said. “Players are not always aware that these illegal gambling sites are not accountable to government regulators, and their profits do not remain in our region. Atlantic Lottery is proud to be the only legal and government-regulated provider of online gambling and sports-betting products in Atlantic Canada.”

Daigle said Atlantic Lottery’s commitment to healthy play and social responsibility also marked several key accomplishments. In October 2022, the corporation introduced a new Healthy Play Policy, clearly identifying responsible gambling tools available on alc.ca and solidifying Atlantic Lottery’s role in helping players identify warning signs of potentially unhealthy behaviours. He said Atlantic Lottery strives to incorporate healthy play in all aspects of its operations, leading to endorsements from the World Lottery Association Level 4 Recertification and the RG Check Accreditation from the Responsible Gambling Council.

“We are proud to be recognized for going above and beyond to encourage healthy play by leading accreditation programs,” he said. “This commitment is at the forefront of everything we do, from providing world-class tools and resources to our players; to providing responsible gambling training to employees, retailers and Video Lottery operators; to implementing compliance monitoring to ensure age verification protocols are followed.”

Daigle said Atlantic Lottery is beginning an intentional social purpose journey to introduce enhanced environmental, social and governance practices, and he looks forward to seeing even more progress in the months ahead. Early examples of these practices include participation in the PrintReleaf program to contribute to reforestation and reduce Atlantic Lottery’s environmental impact; Indigenous ally training and workshops to support the organization’s commitment to Truth and Reconciliation; and additional transparency about Board and committee meetings with updates now available on alc.ca.

Atlantic Lottery is publicly owned by the four Atlantic provinces and returns 100 per cent of its profit to the four provincial governments. Founded in 1976, Atlantic Lottery has since returned more than $10 billion in total profit to the region. The complete 2022-23 annual report, financial statements and community impact report are available at annualreport.alc.ca/2023.

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Media contact:

Greg Weston
Communications Strategist
Atlantic Lottery
506-867-5800 ext. 5569
greg.weston@alc.ca