Atlantic Lottery Corporation

ALC was founded in 1976, shortly after the founding of government lotteries elsewhere in Canada. The first and only game offered at this time was A-1, a $1 game sold in books of five, with draws occurring biweekly. While Atlantic Lottery’s first games were only available on a regional basis, it quickly joined the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation, which offered national draws.

In 1977, ALC began sponsoring the Canada Games.

In 1987, Atlantic Lottery was the first lottery organization in the world to print a bar code on all draw and scratch tickets, allowing for instant verification of a prize. In 1990, they introduced the first regulated video lottery terminals in Canada.

Atlantic Lottery made history once again in 2004 with the introduction of PlaySphere, making them the first lottery jurisdiction in North America to offer lottery products online. PlaySphere has since been rebranded as alc.ca.

From 2004-06, Atlantic Lottery was named one of Canada's Top 100 Employers, as published in Maclean's magazine.

The Charlottetown Driving Park Entertainment Centre (now the Red Shores Racetrack and Casino) first opened their doors in 2005, offering harness racing, a gaming floor and a restaurant.

In 2012, Atlantic Lottery launched an Employee Social Responsibility certification program, becoming the first lottery in the world to launch an internal SR certification program. By 2014, the World Lottery Association recognized Atlantic Lottery for the “Best Innovation in Responsible Gaming” for its Ask Away information site.

Atlantic Lottery became a member of the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI) in 2016.

Draw Games:

Lotto 6/49 (national) — draws on Wednesdays and Saturdays

Lotto Max (national) — draws on Tuesdays and Fridays

Twist (regional) — a regional add-on for Lotto Max in Atlantic Canada.

Controversies

In 2008, Dr Peter McKenna, a professor of political science at University of PEI wrote "Terminal Damage: the politics of VLTs in Atlantic Canada" which was sharply critical of politicians' support for gambling in the region.

In 2017, a class action lawsuit was initiated in Newfoundland and Labrador against the ALC claiming the Video Lottery Terminals it operates in the province deceive players into thinking they can win over the long term. The case went as far as the Supreme Court of Canada which in 2020 ruled it could not proceed further.

ALC's decision to implement an online casino for Nova Scotia in 2021 following a similar initiative in New Brunswick in 2020 was criticized by a Halifax counsellor specializing in gambling addiction, who told the CBC that, "the perceived legitimacy of the website being endorsed by the government" could lead to more use, noting that there was a moratorium and planned phaseout of physical VLTs in the province at the same time the virtual ones were being launched.

In 2022, journalists from King's College's journalism program produced a investigative series about the continuing harm from VLTs in Nova Scotia, where the Nova Scotia Gaming Corporation acknowledges one in ten VLT users are problem gamblers.