There's less money than expected for many local charities that pin their hopes on provincial gaming grants, and the groups are disappointed with the change.

On Tuesday, Langley MLA Mary Polak and Fort Langley-Aldergrove MLA Rich Coleman announced $727,440 is being distributed to a long list of local non-profit groups.

However, many are seeing less money than in past years, and much less than they had hoped for.

The Langley Seniors Resource Centre received $97,500 in the most recent round, the bulk of $120,000 it will receive from gaming this year.

But that's down from about $160,000 in gaming money the society received in 2009, said director of programs Barb Stack.

"It definitely has had an impact," Stack said. "We're not sure what we're going to be doing at this point."

At the centre, senior Audrie Maki vented her frustration on B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell. "He's cutting us to the bone already," she said.

Rosa Barkley is worried about what the cuts will do to the centre. "We're all seniors, here," she said. "If they don't get the money, what are they going to do?"

The reduced grant comes in the wake of an $86,000 cut in Fraser Health Authority funding for the centre last year.

The society's board is meeting this week to discuss how to deal with the shortfall.

The Langley Hospice Society, which offers aid to the terminally ill and their families, is also seeing less money than last year.

"I actually anticipated [the grant] being reduced," said Sandra Castle, the society's executive director.

Last year, the hospice society received $115,000 in gaming grants, but this year it will get just $100,000.

A cap at that level will cover most charities receiving gaming money, Castle said.

"We make up the difference through our thrift store," she said. "At least we hope to do so."

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Langley expects its grants to go down from about $145,000 last year to $122,000 this year, said executive director Mary Reeves.

"We are still hopeful that we can pick up somewhere else," Reeves said, "but having said that, everyone else is cutting back."

At the Canadian Museum of Flight at Langley Regional Airport, museum manager Terry Brunner was disappointed with their $18,000 grant.

The museum had asked for $80,000 this year, to help fund school programs.

"Basically, it takes away from the kids, is what it does," he said.

When the museum has requested funding in recent years, it has typically received between $30,000 and $35,000, Brunner said.

But because grants are uncertain, the museum treats them as a bonus when it receives one. "We didn't build it into the budget," Brunner said.

Even those asking for small grants were not necessarily happy with what they got.

The B.C. Farm Machinery and Agriculture Museum asked for $3,300 to pay half the cost of some electrical work.

They got $1,665, said museum president Grace Muller.

"I'm disappointed. We didn't ask for a lot," Muller said.

She compared the grant to 2008, when the museum asked for $9,900 for a roofing project and received $9,000. In 2007, the society received $38,000 for a variety of renovations, again close to what they had requested.

Muller doesn't know why they are now getting just half what they had asked for.

Not every group is getting drastically less. The Valley Therapeutic Equestrian Association is apparently getting a bit more this quarter from gaming grants, but may get a little less from other government sources.

There have been changes to the grants program this year, said Coleman, cabinet minister in charge of gaming.

"We have more applicants for grants than we ever have in the past," Coleman said, pointing to the recent recession as an underlying cause.

In addition to spreading the money more thinly, Coleman said, gaming grants have been re-prioritized, with sports teams being largely excluded this year, in favour of social and youth service groups.

Targeted money handed out by bingo halls has been largely eliminated.

Bingo is fading as a portion of gaming revenues, Coleman said, and in recent years, the bingo grants had been subsidized by other forms of gambling.

That needed to stop, to make the system fair, Coleman said.

The grants are calculated annually, based on the needs of groups asking for money, he said, adding, "Some people think the grant's an entitlement."

But in some cases, if money is left over from the previous year, or if a group can find money through other forms of grants or from donors, less gaming money will be given.

"I think actually the Langley groups did pretty well," Coleman said.

A total of $120 million in gambling money will be handed out around B.C. this year, up by about $9 million from last year, but down from a pre-recession high of $154 million.