Range Lake MLA Kieron Testart is calling for the expansion of the gaming industry in the NWT.
“I think it’s a billion-dollar idea,” he told NNSL Media on April 16.
Testart first began considering the benefits of expanding the NWT’s gaming sector when he represented the district of Kam Lake in the 18th Legislative Assembly.
After being elected in Range Lake in the 2023 territorial election, he broached the idea at the assembly’s Feb. 23 session, contending at the time that “if there’s one thing Northerners love, it’s a good bingo,” and outlining the benefits of bringing video lottery terminals (VLTs) and casinos into the territory.
Bringing casinos and VLTs to the NWT could be a boon for both the GNWT and Indigenous governments, he contends, and could ultimately help fund a great many important projects.
“It’s a very lucrative opportunity that would create a lot of prosperity and add to tourism products,” he said. “I think if you have the right supports in place, that money will not just go into general government coffers and become a source of revenue, but it can also be used to fund programs that we sorely need, like addiction-based programs. It can fund sports. It can fund schools.
“There are many school boards in southern Canada that are close to a casino, and the casino will actually turn one night over to a school board or parent-teacher association, and they will fund their operations for a year on one night of charitable donations from running the casino. That’s the kind of scale we’re talking about.”
Northerners have access to a host of online casinos, where they can play slots and table games and bet on their favourite sports. However, because those online casinos are based outside of the NWT, none of the money Northerners spend stays in the territory.
“We need to also take a look at online gambling because this is happening,” Testart said. “Plenty of Northerners frequent online casinos or gaming and betting sites. None of that revenue or those operations are being captured by territorial authorities. That’s potentially some revenue leakage that could help the government, because again, it’s happening.”
Any conversation about expanding the gaming industry in the NWT will inevitably lead to discourse about addiction.
In 2018, Statistics Canada undertook a study about the risk of gambling problems in the country. The study did not include any data for the territories, but found that 1.5 per cent of non-Indigenous people who gambled in the last year were at risk of developing a problem, while 4.5 per cent of Indigenous people who gambled in the past year faced the same risk.
Testart was adamant that education about the risks of gambling would be paramount if the industry were to be expanded in the NWT, but noted that those risks already exist thanks to the prevalence of online gambling.
“We can go to many other successful examples and find out what works for them,” he said, pointing to the casinos with Indigenous ownership that exist around Canada. “But I wouldn’t want to be prescriptive because we need to let the communities and the people [in the NWT] just tell us what their needs are.
“Public awareness is always important too, right? The more, we embrace something and bring it out of the shadows, the more we can actually talk about it.”
Testart would like to see the gaming industry expanded as soon as possible, particularly as the NWT faces the closure of its diamond mines, which have been a gargantuan source of revenue throughout their lifespans.
“We’re looking for new opportunities to grow the economy, and when we’re thinking of how we can make the North more resilient as an economy post-diamonds, this is the kind of stuff we should be moving very quickly on,” he said.
Changing gaming legislation shouldn’t be difficult, Testart added, because the current legislation is actually “deceptively liberal” about what is allowed. It would only need to be fine-tuned in collaboration with Indigenous governments, many of whom he believes are already interested in the idea.
Speaking at the Feb. 23 session of the legislative assembly, Testart asked Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs Minister Vince McKay to raise the possibility with Indigenous groups at the next Council of Leaders meeting. The MLA is unsure if the minister has had a chance to do so, but plans to bring the issue up again at the next sitting of the assembly.
One way or the other, he is confident that the NWT’s gaming industry can and will be expanded in the near future.
“If I was minister, it’d be done tomorrow,” he said.