Atlantic Lottery Corporation Revenue Decreases In 2020-2021 Fiscal Year

Atlantic Lottery Corporation, the company that operates lottery games in Atlantic Canada, has recorded decreasing revenue in the 2020-2021 fiscal year, as its earnings took a hit due to the effects of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The Canadian provincial lottery saw its revenue drop by 11.9 percent to 635.6 million dollars.

The corporation operates lotteries in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, along with Newfoundland and Labrador. This was the second year which saw its revenue affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sean O’Connor, the Chairman of the Atlantic Lottery Corporation , admitted that the pandemic “heavily impacted the financial results” of the company in the financial year that ended on March 31, 2021.

The year started with lockdowns which kept most of the company’s businesses in the hospitality and horse-racing industry shut, while some of its retail locations were closed as well.

“Throughout the year, necessary public health measures were brought in to curb localized outbreaks,” the chairman added, and those measures had a significant impact on every division of the Atlantic Lottery Corporation.

The company’s overall net income was reduced from 395.4 million Canadian dollars in 2019-20 to just 346.5 million in 2020-21. The corporation’s chairman admitted that the figure was well below the company’s “original pre-pandemic plan.”

The Atlantic Lottery Corporation managed to achieve net ticket sales of 330.8 million dollars in the last financial year, and that figure represents an 8.5 percent increase compared to the previous twelve months.

However, the revenue from video lottery products went down by 26.4 percent compared to 2019-2020. Receipts from video lottery were 292.8 million dollars, and that decrease was entirely due to the impact of Covid-19 related restrictions.

The same impact was felt by the company’s entertainment center revenue, the corporation’s Red Shores gaming venues on Prince Edward Island only managed to attract 12 million dollars during the past fiscal year.

The company adapted to the difficult situation and cut its expenses by 16.7 percent compared to the previous year. As a result, the Atlantic Lottery Corporation ended the fiscal year with a gross profit of 523.6 million Canadian dollars and a net profit of 346.6 million dollars. However, that net profit was 12.4 percent smaller than what the company achieved in 2019-2020.

Source: “Atlantic Lotteries revenue dips 11.9% in Covid-hit 2020-21“. iGB North America. October 12, 2021.