Message from the President and CEO

A satisfactory settlement

On March 23, Justice Gratien Duchesne approved the December, out-of-court settlement of a class action suit about video lottery terminals, ending litigation that dated from 2002.

Plaintiffs in the suit acknowledged that video lottery terminals are not the cause of compulsive gambling, confirming the position taken by Loto-Québec in the litigation. This conclusion was also recognized in the judgement approving the settlement agreement.

Moreover, for the sake of fairness, the Government of Québec agreed to reimburse therapy fees incurred by compulsive gamblers treated between 1994 and 2002, independent of what types of games they played, on submission of receipts. The first notices of eligibility conditions and claim procedures have been released.

It is worthwhile recalling that Loto-Québec contributes 22 million dollars each year to the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux for awareness and treatment programs that are available to the entire population. The Corporation also provides an annual grant in the order of
6 million dollars to the Fondation Mise sur toi, which is an independent foundation whose mandate is to promote healthy gaming habits. In the last eight years, Loto-Québec has devoted more than
213 million dollars to fighting compulsive gambling.

In the area of preventing compulsive gambling,
Loto-Québec has also acted directly, with programs aimed at its customers and employees. Since the Fondation Mise sur toi became an independent entity in April 2009, responsibility for Loto-Québec’s preventive measures have been handled by its individual business units. An oversight committee whose coordinator reports to the corporation’s CEO was set up for just this purpose, with each business unit having one seat.

The Corporation’s preventive measures are well adapted to the realities of each gaming sector. Moreover, putting them in place has led to
Loto-Québec being recognized as a world responsible gaming leader.

During the 2009-2010 fiscal year, Loto-Québec received Level 4 certification in responsible gaming from the 140-member World Lottery Association (WLA). Level 4 is the highest level awarded by this international association of lottery corporations.

I invite you to consult the press release for more details.

Online gaming

We of course expected that the announcement of our imminent entry into the field of online gaming would elicit reaction. The questions that have been raised are legitimate, of course, but we sincerely believe that as citizens learn more about the project and its implications, they will better understand our objectives and policies.

It is important to remember what motivated us to move forward here:  Quebecers currently have access to more than 2,000 illegal and unregulated online gaming sites that are often of questionable integrity and provide few, if any, responsible gaming measures. Loto-Québec aims to channel its gaming offering within a controlled circuit and provide a secure environment whose integrity is unquestionable.

If a one-year moratorium was declared, as some people have demanded, the kings of illegal gambling will simply have one more year to enrich themselves with profits that are beyond the reach of the Government of Québec.

Loto-Québec did not take the decision to enter the online gaming market lightly. The initiative is the result of a rigorous process of reflection that was itself founded on the meticulous analysis of practices elsewhere in the world. The Swedish, British, French, Italian and Finnish models were all scrupulously studied. There is no way we would jump into this project without having done our homework.

Once the National Assembly has officially sanctioned the amendment to the regulation respecting online gaming, we will be able to begin the next steps in the project.

We will then need to fine-tune computer operations and the Web portal, and establish appropriate business procedures. At that point we will begin an intensive period of testing.

A fruitful 40-year partnership

On April 19, we attended the official Montréal inauguration of the new Scientific Games
online rotary press, for the same printer where the very first Mini Loto numbered ticket was printed
in 1970.

On the strength of its 40-year partnership with Loto-Québec, the printer has invested 20 million dollars in new cutting-edge technology equipment that assures employment to 320 Montrealers.

Sales of printed (as opposed to online) lottery tickets totalled some 675 million dollars in
2008-2009. This accounted for more than one-third of Loto-Québec’s total lottery sales. Last year alone, 270 million tickets were printed at Scientific Games’ plant in the city.

Scientific Games now prints all Loto-Québec instant lottery tickets, about one hundred games each year.

Gala de reconnaissance en environnement et développement durable

Loto-Québec’s efforts to incorporate sustainable development criteria into its sponsorship choices were rewarded at the 4th Gala de reconnaissance en environnement et développement durable that took place in Montréal on April 13, 2010.

Our sponsorship program, which, it should be noted, is one of Québec’s most extensive, has since 2006 included activities aimed at making  organizers aware of the impact their events have on the environment.

Now the Corporation is going event further, by including 18 sustainable development questions in its sponsorship application form. Residual materials management, active transport, local purchasing, promotion of healthy food choices and hiring staff who have been out of the labour market are all part of project aspects that are assessed in the evaluation process. Final scores are considered as part of the funding decision.

Loto-Québec’s central position as one of Québec’s principal sponsors obviously gives greater weight to its actions in this area. The decision to incorporate ecologically responsible criteria into our choice of partners is neither passing nor ephemeral. To the contrary: it’s a sustainable initiative!