Atlantic Lottery Corp profit falls due to lagging digital product

The lottery monopoly in Canada’s four Atlantic provinces reported a small profit decline in its most recent fiscal year, in part due to its digital offering being “not yet fully product competitive.”

The Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC) announced on Monday that its profit for fiscal 2016-17 hit C$422m (US $343.3m), exceeding its target by C$6.5m and marking the fourth year that the annual sum had surpassed the C$400m mark.

However, this year’s profit was down nearly C$10m from the previous year, as ALC’s overall revenue fell 3% to C$1.15b. Lottery ticket sales were down 4.6% to C$699m and video lottery receipts slipped 1% to C$434m. Only entertainment center revenue was in positive territory, rising 4% to C$19.2m.

The revenue declines were partially offset by keeping a tighter rein on direct costs and operating expenses, which fell 3.2% and 4.5%, respectively.