The British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) has a history of giving back to communities, however, exactly how much it has given back over time and to who is a question that, until now, has gone largely unanswered. Thompson Rivers University recently took up the challenge and launched a study that particularly focused on the Kamloops area where the BCLC has its headquarters.
The study resulted in some surprising revelations, chief among which was that the corporation had funneled over $2 billion into the social and economic development of the local area over the last 35 years.
To university drew its data from both land-based and online lottery gaming and noted that draw-based games rank highly in popularity. The study also revealed that the global pandemic had been instrumental in driving the popularity of online gambling.
Crunching the Numbers
Peter Tsigaris, an economist at the university headed up the research project. He explained that the study was wholly dedicated to examining the total impact of the BCLC on the local region and that the study was conducted from an objective standpoint.
Tsigaris highlighted a particularly intriguing titbit of data regarding the corporation’s headquarters. He discovered that when two full-time jobs open up at the Kamloops building, another job is created in the surrounding community, the economist explained that this is down to a simple economic spinoff.
He elaborated that the corporation can be credited for the creation of 667 full-time jobs, as 445 positions were occupied at the company itself with 222 being subsequently generated in the surrounding area.
Support and Spend
In total, the BCLC has spent close to $324.9 million in local goods and services, which indicates that the local economy draws significant benefit from the mere existence of the corporation, making it a vital component of the community.
As far as direct sponsorships go, the corporation has allocated an impressive $2.6 billion towards these since it was first founded. The BCLC’s CEO, Lynda Cavanaugh said that both the corporation and the surrounding community draw mutual benefit from their coexistence.
