John Dunsworth, the actor best known for his role as the power-tripping park manager Mr. Lahey on the hit series Trailer Park Boys, has lent his face and personal battle with gambling to an on-line campaign aimed at eliminating video lottery terminals in Nova Scotia.
At an emotional press conference at the legislature yesterday, a citizens group backed by the provincial Liberals announced the launch of amid tearful stories from people whose lives have been ruined by the gambling machines.
Premier John Hamm announced this month that the Conservative government would unplug 1,000 of the 3,200 VLTs in 480 bars and taverns across the province. The remaining machines will have to be turned off at midnight, except for those in the casinos in Halifax and Sydney, which are exempt.
The government collects about $130-million a year from VLTs, which were introduced in 1991 as a revenue generator for the province. But Mr. Dunsworth and others say the revenue comes at an extraordinary cost in broken families and gutted bank accounts, deep debt and untold depression.
The 59-year-old actor put his first toonie into a machine in the early 1990s. Killing time on a casting call, he won $500 on his first spin and played twice more that day, winning $250 each time.
"The gambling gods looked down and hooked me," Mr. Dunsworth, who calls himself a compulsive gambler, said in an interview.
As a kid, he said, he spent his snow-shovelling money on nickel gumball games and pinball machines. As a student at Dalhousie University, he gambled away his tuition at a poker game. These days, he plays only half-penny bridge and Scrabble, but those games, he said, require skill and offer luck, something VLTS do not.
For several years, he pumped $100 a week into the machines. A self-proclaimed troglodyte, he said the fact that he doesn't carry an ATM card saved him. "I'm not doing this to get rid of the VLTs for myself. I'm hoping I can handle my addiction," Mr. Dunsworth said. "I'm here to try and stop people from being hooked in the future by getting rid of these VLTs."
An Omnifacts Bristol Research survey commissioned by Nova Scotia Gaming Corp. indicated that 50 per cent of respondents want VLTs removed entirely and 77 per cent want their numbers reduced. As well, 54 per cent of people in the province would like them reduced in number or eliminated even if it means higher taxes.
Yesterday, former Liberal leader and MLA Danny Graham called VLTs "a terrible plight."
"Not everyone who is affected by this terrible problem is ready to step up, but increasingly, the silence is being broken by a volunteer group who thinks they can make a difference," he said. "We want to begin a campaign to once and for all say game over to VLT use."
But Finance Minister Peter Christie defended reducing the number of VLTs, not eliminating them, saying that would only give rise to illegal machines.
"It's about balancing all the interests," he said yesterday. "We believe regulated gambling is better than trying to eliminate all VLTs."
Several VLT addicts participating in the campaign joined Mr. Dunsworth in telling their stories yesterday. Steve McCluskey of Coldbrook, N.S., lost more than $10,000 a month on the machines, which he began playing in 1996, maxing out his credit cards and a $15,000 line of credit. Louise Phillips of Brooklyn, N.S., said she lost more than $250,000 over the past decade and contemplated suicide.
"I'd like to see the machines gone. They destroy people," Clayton Park resident Christine Shupe said. "They destroyed my marriage and self-esteem."