Canada to Introduce Regulated Online Poker by September
Written by Renee K | Sunday, February 7th, 2010
The finance minster of Quebec announced this week the first plans to introduce online poker to the province by September this year. The move is part of Loto Quebec’s intentions to offer an online gambling service, beginning with poker games and sports betting.
Raymond Bechand said that while the state is set to make around $50 million in the first three years of the new service’s operations, it is hoped that Loto Quebec will eventually grab a much larger part of the $675 million online gambling market in Canada, of which the game of poker plays a major role.
Not everyone is thrilled about the move, with the usual doomsday-naysayers predicting that the number of problem gamblers will increase with the introduction of the new service.
However, the lottery group has slammed these opposition groups by citing public health studies supporting the idea that increasing the number of gambling outlets does not necessarily increase the proportion of problem gamblers.
Croupiers working for Loto Quebec offline casinos have also been critical of the move, saying that the introduction of online poker will be detrimental to existing casinos that will have trouble competing with online operations. The union representing 1,200 croupiers said that fears of increased gambling may be well founded as they have been trained to identify and assist problem gamblers, while it may be difficult to pin these people if they gamble online.
However, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Loto Quebec. Alain Cousineau, said that Quebec residents already have access to thousands of online casino sites. “This is a way for us to channel the gaming offering in a controlled circuit and environment whose integrity will be beyond reproach,” he said.
Some of the measures to be put in place at the new online poker site include the requirement to verify the player’s age, the need to limit weekly account funding and the ability to self exclude themselves from the site whenever they feel the need to.
Check Out Other Related Articles
· Written by Renee K · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
