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!