BILL NO. 177

(as introduced)

1st Session, 60th General Assembly
Nova Scotia
56 Elizabeth II, 2007

Private Member's Bill

Video Lottery Terminals Moratorium Act
(amended)

Leo Glavine
Kings West

First Reading: April 3, 2007

(Explanatory Notes)

Second Reading:

Third Reading:

Clause 1 makes the Video Lottery Terminals Moratorium Act applicable to video lottery terminals administered by band gaming commissions established under agreements between the Crown and bands within the meaning of the Indian Act (Canada).

Clause 2

(a) amends the Act to reduce the number of video lottery terminals by fifty per cent on or before December 31, 2007, and to eliminate them by December 31, 2009; and

(b) establishes offences and penalties for the operation of unauthorized video lottery terminals.

1 Section 2 of Chapter 3 of the Acts of 1998, the Video Lottery Terminals Moratorium Act, is amended by striking out everything after "electrical" in the fifth line to the end of the Section and substituting a period.

2 Chapter 3 is further amended by adding immediately after Section 4 the following Sections:

5 (1) Notwithstanding any other enactment, including the Gaming Control Act or any regulations made pursuant to that Act, the number of video lottery terminals that are legally authorized for operation or use on the coming into force of this Section shall be reduced by fifty per cent on or before December 31, 2007, and reduced to zero on or before December 31, 2009.

(2) The Governor in Council may make regulations respecting the manner in which the reduction in the number of video lottery terminals legally authorized for operation or use is carried out.

(3) The exercise by the Governor in Council of the authority contained in subsection (2) is regulations within the meaning of the Regulations Act.

6 The Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs shall enter into negotiations with the Minister of Indian Affairs for Canada and representatives of the First Nation communities in the Province with the goal of agreeing upon a plan for reducing and eventually eliminating video lottery terminals in the communities.

7 Every person who operates or makes available for use a video lottery terminal that is not legally authorized for operation or use is guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to

(a) for a first offence, a fine of twenty thousand dollars, and in default of payment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months; or

(b) for a second or subsequent offence,

(i) a fine of fifty thousand dollars, and in default of payment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or
(ii) imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months.