Guests at the Coaldale Inn have been able to try their luck on video lottery terminals (VLTs) since November.
Owner Ken Schmidt had been asking the Town of Coaldale, Alta., to allow the machines since he took over the business in 2016.
“There’s lots of them within a short driving distance of Coaldale, but why would people have to drive away to entertain themselves in something that’s totally legal?” Schmidt said.
“For the business, it’s kind of a necessary stream of revenue. Now that we have them, we’re in that game.”
Coaldale was one of ten Alberta communities to decide against introducing the machines in 1998.
Last year, town council reversed that decision, passing a bylaw permitting VLTs in a 5-2 vote.
In a statement to Global News, town director of growth and investment Cameron Mills said the bylaw is intended to create choice.
“By adopting the new bylaw allowing for VLTs, the town created an environment where individual business owners decide for themselves if they want to include VLTs in their operations,” it reads in part.
According to Mills, two businesses were “realistic” candidates to install the gaming machines.
One is the Coaldale Inn. The other is McLennan’s Pub, which hasn’t applied for VLTs.
“I kind of polled a lot of my customers to see what they felt about it and nobody was really up on it,” said owner Tim McLennan.
McLennan isn’t ruling them out entirely, but doesn’t see VLTs as part of his establishment right now.
“If at some point in time, we need that additional income — regardless what it might be — maybe we’ll apply for it,” he said.
So far at the Coaldale Inn, Schmidt says the VLTs are a winner and he wants to expand.
“(We’re) hopefully in a position to get more in a short period of time. That depends on performance of the machines and the decision of the government.”