Nova Scotia Minister Discusses Online Gambling Laws
Written by Renee K | Saturday, August 28th, 2010
Amidst reports that Nova Scotia is weighing the idea of introducing regulated online gambling to the province, finance minister Graham Steele defended the move by saying that gambling addicts would benefit from better protection than they currently receive from offshore sites.
“For those who say that the government shouldn’t be there, I just say I cannot consider it to be responsible to leave problem gamblers to the mercy of illegal, unregulated offshore gambling sites, many of which are believed to be fronts for organized crime,” Steele said in an interview to the CBC this week.
Steele said that offshore sites did not care if someone had a problem. “They don’t care that the money is leaving Nova Scotia. There are no ‘problem gambling resources’,” he said.
According to Steele, thousands of Nova Scotians already gamble online. “They’re spending millions of dollars. So it’s not a case of saying, ‘Should we be in it or not?’ Nova Scotians are in it in a big way, but in an unregulated environment,” said Steele.
Nova Scotia is hoping to follow the example of other provinces such as Quebec and Ontario who have announced plans to launch their own versions of online gambling sites in the coming months.
The Nova Scotia government will make its official plans regarding online gambling known in the fall when it releases its gaming strategy. However, the government is already bracing for tough opposition from across the board.
A criminologist at St Mary’s University in Halifax, Prof. John McMullan said that Nova Scotians don’t actively seek out online gambling as rule. “So why are we going into that business, when you have no natural market for it, unless you want to stimulate a market?” he mused. “You’re not going to capture the money from those people who have already made the decision to gamble offshore. You’re going to have to then stimulate your own market internally, get players from within your own jurisdiction to go online and play, who perhaps have never played before.”
Other Articles Published on CompatiblePoker.com
· Written by Renee K · Filed Under Poker News · Comments Off
