How gaming is organised in New Brunswick

The New Brunswick Lotteries and Gaming Corporation, known as the NBLGC, is a Crown corporation. It was established on June 26, 2008, under the Gaming Control Act. It develops, organizes, conducts and manages provincial lottery and gaming activities for the province. Other companies run casinos and terminals for it, and the corporation stays at the centre of the arrangement.

Paragraph 207(1)(a) of the Criminal Code of Canada shapes that structure. The NBLGC conducts and manages all provincial gaming, as the paragraph requires. Revenue comes back to the corporation. In fiscal 2023-24, the NBLGC received $185.7 million in gaming revenue. That figure is the corporation's gaming revenue for the year, not the takings of any single venue.

The Atlantic Lottery Corporation, ALC, is owned jointly by the four Atlantic provinces. For the NBLGC it operates three things: the video lottery program, online gaming and traditional lottery. Atlantic Lottery runs these operations, while the NBLGC conducts and manages them. Players must be 19 or older to buy, play or redeem its products.

Video lottery terminals, or VLTs, arrived in New Brunswick in 1990. Their number has a ceiling. The province allows at most 2,000 VLTs and at most 300 VLT sites. Those are maximums set by the province, not counts of terminals in place.

The Gaming Control Branch was created under the Gaming Control Act as a branch of the Department of Justice and Public Safety. A Registrar heads it, appointed by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council. Its work covers charitable gaming licences, video lottery siteholders and casino gaming.

Charitable and religious organizations can be licensed to run bingos, raffles, breakopen ticket sales and Monte Carlo events. Charitable Texas Hold'em tournaments began in May 2008. Lottery gaming has been authorized since 1976, when the New Brunswick Lotteries Act created the Lotteries Commission of New Brunswick.

Harness racing is regulated by the Maritime Provinces Harness Racing Commission (MPHRC), an agency of the Council of Atlantic Premiers. Its reach also covers Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Pari-mutuel betting on races is regulated and supervised by the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency, and the NBLGC is not directly involved.