Earlier this week, the Quebec government approved the province’s lottery commission to create and establish online poker and sports betting sites in 2010. The poker site will be ran by gaming company Loto-Quebec, in conjunction with the BC and Atlantic Lottery Corporation. Only residents within the province’s borders will have access to the site, though those same players will be allowed to play against users from other participating jurisdictions.
“I believe this to be an efficient way of fighting the underground economy,” said Quebec’s finance minister, Raymond Bachand. “Our citizens are not (currently) protected, and the money goes to illegal channels.”
According to Loto-Quebec, the poker site will use age-verification methods to keep underage players from playing, as well as including deposit limits and self-exclusion limits aimed at deterring problem gamblers.
“(Many) online gambling sites obviously do not offer an assistance program for vulnerable players,” said Loto-Quebec president and CEO Alain Cousineau. “(This) leaves the state to pick up the costs of problem online gambling without reaping any benefits.”
The Quebec government hopes to pull in at least $50 million in the next three years through the new venture, stating that regulating online poker was more practical than attempting to ban all existing gaming sites. And as usual, anti-gambling advocates are already speaking out against the new site, claiming that it will generate a large amount of problem gamblers.
“Any new type of gambling always attracts new people, especially now when it’s a hidden one that you can do in the den in your pajamas while your spouse is fast asleep,” a local anti-gambling advocate, Sol Boxenbaum, told CTV Montreal, a Quebec television station.
