With the unprecedented situation that has befallen the entire country over the past five months as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Crown corporations like Loto-Quebec are trying to stay afloat amidst a sharp fall in gaming revenue.
CEO of Loto-Quebec, Lynne Roiter, has expressed concern over the falling revenue of the corporation, that has seen a drop in income that might reach CA$300 million by the end of the year.
Inhouse gambling has been off bounds for Quebecois punters ever since four casinos and two gaming halls had to shut their doors in March. At the time, Loto-Quebec was the first Crown corporation that ordered the shutting down of its gaming hotspots ahead of the lockdown, to shield its staff and gamblers from the novel virus.
Estimation of the Gaming Revenue
Ever since the lockdown, the only legal gaming has been online lotto and online gambling. Now, with most major casinos re-emerging from the five-month lull in operations, the tallying of the financial losses has begun. Although Loto-Quebec has not shared precise figures, a significant drop can be expected due to the shutting down of all of the corporation’s land-based casino and gaming hall venues.
To make matters worse, physical purchasing of lottery tickets was also unavailable for half of the year, with only online purchases permitted. This, too, led to a sharp drop in revenue for this branch of the business, especially since many elderly lotto punters lack the knowledge needed for online purchasing.
Reopening of Casinos
With a quarter of the fiscal year written off, the monetary blow is expected to show on the next financial report. If we look at the income accrued from the previous fiscal year, the second quarter lottery ticket income alone stood at CA$216 million, a figure that is very much decimated this time around.
Concurrently, popular casino hotspots like Casino Montreal, Casino Mont-Tremblant, Casino Lac-Leamy and Casino Charlevoix recorded revenue of CA$191 million during the affected period, which represents a drop of CA$100 million due to the lockdown.
Since the new fiscal year has commenced on 1 April, the primary drop in revenue will be reflected for this period. Nonetheless, since all casinos had to close on 13 March, about half a month of the previous financial year will also impact the overall lost revenue tally.
