Tag Archives: bc
Canadian Lotteries to Offer Online Poker
Canadian Lotteries to Offer Online Poker
Canadian lottery players will now be able to play one of the most popular online games-poker. Some Canadian lottery corporations are starting to offer players safe and regulated online poker. Once confined to the shadowy world of online gaming online poker has gained some measure of respectability in recent years. Loto-Quebec is the latest lottery to announce the addition of an online poker website that will launch in the fall. Loto-Quebec says the new website will counter the many illegal gambling websites and expects to make about $50 million by 2012.
The new website will be launched by Loto-Quebec and Atlantic and B.C. lottery corporations. The Atlantic and B.C. lottery corporations already have their own online poker operations. The Atlantic Lottery Corporation has operated an online gambling website since 2004 and allows players to purchase online lottery tickets in addition to poker. The B.C. lottery website offers online poker allowing players to bet as much as $9,999.per week. The B.C. lottery website also sells online lottery tickets. The industry expects big bets to translate into big profits for the lottery corporations
Some Canadian provinces are taking a wait and see approach to online poker and gaming. Kevin Van Egdom, with the Western Canada Lottery Corp stated, “Nothing has been written off forever, but we have no plans to do that.” The Western Canada Lottery Corp provides lottery services for Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Van Egdom further stated, “We’re responsible for offering lottery games and selling lottery products through authorized retailers, where you buy them in person. Each region makes its own decision and Quebec’s doesn’t play into ours.”
Ontario Gaming and Lottery Corp. is also taking a wait and see approach. The company says it has spent a ‘considerable amount of time’ investigating the possibility on online gaming and online lottery tickets. Ontario Lottery spokesman Rui Brum said that “No decision has been made,” and that it would be up to the new board of directors whether the lottery will offer online gaming.
John Kennedy FitzGerald, the CEO of the Vancouver-based Interactive Gaming Council says he hopes that government sanctioned lotteries offering gaming is a step towards regulation of the online gaming industry and not a step towards a government monopoly of the online gaming sector. FitzGerald stated, “It’s a natural progression for governments to be more involved. At least we have the government saying they recognize the industry and know it’s here to stay.”
Ontario Lottery to Launch Online Gaming Site
Ontario Lottery to Launch Online Gaming Site
A second Canadian Provincial lottery may enter the internet gambling industry. Earlier in the year the British Columbia Lottery Corporation launched an online gaming website. Ste stated purpose was to provide BC residents with a safe alternative to unlicensed and unregulated offshore gambling sites. Some reporters were cynical about the move online because earlier the BC government condemned online gambling as a destructive addicting vice. The launch of the website was not without problems. The site crashed shortly after it was launched due to heavy traffic from curious BC punters. Actually the site’s crash shows heavy demand for safe online gambling. Early opposition was fierce from both political parties but the lure of the $100 million dollars spent annually by BC gamblers at offshore websites was too great for the BC government to pass up. The BC lottery is the first North American jurisdiction to offer online gambling. Unfortunately participation is limited to BC residents.
Recently The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation announced that it will launch its own online gambling site sometime in 2012. Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan pointed out that Ontario punters spend an estimated $400 million dollars a year at offshore gaming sites. Duncan stated, “Globally, Internet gaming has become a prominent trend.” Duncan said that the province has asked the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation to build a “socially responsible and secure” gambling website that would include consumer protections and “encourages responsible gaming.”
The move could help the Ontario Lottery increase flagging sales. The Ontario lottery generates revenues of about $1.7 billion dollars a year but recently the numbers have been declining. A government spokesman estimated that within five years the website could generate an additional $100 million dollars a year. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario is trying to figure out how to regulate cyber gambling to prevent abuses and compulsive gambling. Critics voiced the usual complaints and concerns, underage gambling, gambling ‘addiction’ and one politician made the astounding claim that all internet gamblers are ‘addicted.’
Despite objections the project is expected to go forward on schedule. Since the technology is already in place the Ontario lottery can learn from the mistakes made by the BC lottery when they launched their website. Hopefully at some point Americans will be able to join in the fun!