Rick Fifield, of St. John's, wants his home province to ban VLTs. (CBC) (CBC)

A long-time opponent of video lottery terminals accuses the province of keeping information about the machines from the public.

Rick Fifield has been digging for answers on VLTs through the province's Access to Information and Privacy Protection Act but there are some numbers he hasn't been able to get.

"They don't want us to see the profit and the probability of the win. Now we actually know anecdotally... that your probability of a win is virtually zero."

Fifield said he is interested because he's been offering credit counselling for 30 years and, as the owner of a security company, he's stopped several people who were stealing because of gambling debts.

Fifield said he has a meeting planned with Health Minister Jerome Kennedy. He plans to tell the minister that the provincial government doesn't actually profit from VLTs.

"When you take a look at your costs -- loss of life, the cost of jobs, the cost to employers -- if you do a cost benefit analysis, what you're going to find is that you're not making any money."

Fifield said he'll continue to request more information about VLTs. He's confident that he'll be able to get what he is looking for without going to court.