Suit alleges VLT games designed to cheat
• A Newfoundland judge has certified a class- action lawsuit against the Atlantic Lottery Corp. that alleges VLT line games are designed to deceive players.
The class- action involves an estimated 30,000 players of line games on video lottery terminals in Newfoundland and Labrador.
“These games have been cheating Newfoundlanders for many years,” said Doug Babstock of St. John’s, one of the representative plaintiffs.
Ches Crosbie, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the Atlantic Lottery Corp. deceptively generates tens of millions of dollars from VLTs every year.
“The line games lead a person to believe they are getting closer and closer to a win, except a win doesn’t happen. It’s a deceptive feature and has nothing to do with how the internal programming actually dictates how the game is going to end up,” Crosbie said.
Atlantic Lottery said Wednesday it plans to appeal the certification. Carla Bourque, communications counsel with the corporation, said the court decision does not deal with the merits of any claims made by the plaintiffs and none of the plaintiffs’ claims have been proven.
“It is Atlantic Lottery’s position that the claims made by the plaintiffs are without merit. If the case does proceed to trial, it will be aggressively defended,” she said in a statement.
In a 52- page decision, Justice Alphonsus Faour of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador said he is persuaded that a class- action is a workable way of dealing with the case.
Crosbie said VLTs cause more than twice the rate of problematic gambling compared with other forms of legalized gambling.