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Ridding VLTs Helps Bar Business11 April 2002CALGARY, Canada – As reported by the Calgary Sun: "Sid Ghotme had 54,000 reasons to love VLTs. That, after all, was the annual amount of money he would rake in from the three blinking Video Lottery Terminals that flashed and beeped and sucked the loonies out of his customers' pockets. "Nevertheless, the owner of the Regal Beagle Pub at 108 17 Ave. N.W. had the addictive machines removed from his premises and says he more than makes up for the lost money by increased food and beverage sales. "`I had them in here for two years,' says Sid, who's sipping on a soda water in his pub. `And I just hated them. They destroyed the ambience. It was just so depressing having these zombie-like people plugging their entire paycheques into a machine.' "In fact, Ghotme is so happy with how his business has increased ever since removing the ambience-draining machines from his premises in Oct. 1998 that when his new Regal Beagle Pub opens in Kensington this summer, he refuses to have the machines there either. "…"Lots of people called and came in to congratulate me for getting rid of the VLTs and now they come because they like the atmosphere and because they won't be tempted by the machines,"…" |