Canada Begins process of Online Gambling Development - 07-02-10

February 7 - The Finance Minister of Canada's Quebec province, Raymond Bachand, confirmed that online gambling will become a reality by September this year.

Loto Quebec will be offering online poker and sports betting in a move that is hoped will generate over $50 million over the next three years to state coffers.

Speaking this week, Bachand said that his aim is ensure that Loto Quebec takes an even larger part of the Canadian online gambling market that is worth nearly $700 million.

Countering attacks that the new online gambling services will increase the number of problem gamblers in the province, Loto Quebec argued that Canadians already have access to literally thousands of sites that are "illegal, unregulated and often of doubtful integrity."

"This is a way for us to channel the gaming offering in a controlled circuit and environment whose integrity will be beyond reproach," said the Chief Executive Officer and President of Loto Quebec, Alain Cousineau.

To back up his arguments, Cousinea quoted a public health study that indicated a static growth of problem gamblers in Quebec between the years 1996 and 2002.

The new online gambling site will initially offer poker and sports betting, with the intention to add more games over time.

The site will require that players verify their age and will have a number of features to control problem gambling such as the ability to self exclude at any time, as well as a limit of the amount that players are able to reload their online casino gambling accounts on a weekly basis.

In the meantime, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, representing 1,200 croupiers at three of Loto Quebec's four casinos, said that the new site will impact offline gambling in a negative way.

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