The gambling monopoly in Canada’s four Atlantic provinces enjoyed “significant” growth in its digital player base, despite admitting that its online offering has a hard time competing with internationally licensed online competitors.

This week, the Atlantic Lottery Corporation (ALC), which oversees gaming in the provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, announced that its annual profit for fiscal 2017-18 had hit C$419.2m (US$324.4m) in the 12 months ending March 31.

While ALC crowed about the profit exceeding its budget forecast by C$1.8m, it represented a C$2.8m decline from 2016-17’s profit total, and nearly C$13m below the 2015-16 total. Still, it represented the fourth straight year that the sum topped C$400m, so onward and, er, downward.

ALC’s net revenue hit C$756.1m in 2017-18, down less than 1% from 2016-17. The bulk (C$439.1m) came via nearly 6,300 video lottery terminals, while lottery ticket revenue added C$297.4m and ‘entertainment centers’ contributed C$19.6m.