While casinos in British Columbia continue to stay closed because of COVID-19, the outgoing interim CEO at the British Columbia Lottery Corporation says they’re still not looking at laying off staff.

Speaking on NL Newsday, Greg Moore says its because BCLC staff seem to have more work on their plate now than before.

“We’re still a very profitable business for the provincial government. Obviously, we’re not producing the net revenue as we would have seen when casinos were open but our lottery sales our above pre-COVID numbers now so there’s still a lot of activity,” he said.

Moore says casino teams have been working to ensure that things will be ready to go when Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry deems it safe to open casinos, which have been closed since March 16.

“I think we have about 120 to 140 casino technicians that work in all the casinos around the province and they’ve been working really hard to make sure that those facilities are ready to go when we have the green light,” Moore added.

“And so that has taken a lot of work.”

He previously told NL News that almost all BCLC staff in Kamloops and Vancouver started working from home within about nine days after casinos closed.

“Well over 90 per cent of our staff are now working remotely, and as we get used to this new normal and video conferencing all of the time, it’s allowed us to continue the work that we do,” Moore said in June. “As for the service providers – the casinos themselves – unfortunately well over 90 per cent of staff of all of our different service providers have been laid off.”