Blog entry published on 1 November 2010
Prince Edward Island Goes Against Online Gambling
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In recent months online gambling has become something of a hot topic in Canada, not least because the respective governments of its many provinces all have their own opinions on the controversial topic. While some Canadian provinces have openly embraced the legalization and regulation of the popular internet activity to generate much-needed taxes, others have simply rejected it out of hand.
In terms of pro-online gambling provinces, in July this year British Columbia launched a government-sanctioned site, while Quebec and Ontario are set to launch sites in the near future. In terms of anti-online gambling provinces, a few weeks ago, the government of Novia Scotia came out strongly against online gambling, and most recently the province of Prince Edward Island also rejected legalizing and regulating online gambling for its residents.
Until recently, Prince Edward Island's finance minister Wes Sheridan seemed to be in favour of regulating online gambling, but then he did an about turn. He was quoted as saying: 'Right from the outset this has been all about player protection on Prince Edward Island. Even though we have a very strong working relationship with Atlantic Lottery, we don't feel that the online site that they would offer is the right solution for Prince Edward Island at this time.'
Sheridan was referring to the fact that Prince Edward Island gamblers currently have limited access to online gambling website PlaySphere, which is operated by Canada's Atlantic Lottery. However it may not be all doom and gloom for online gambling fans that live on Port Edward Island, because Sheridan's statements suggest that there may be scope for another online gambling solution in the future.
No since the issue of pro-choice has a subject been such a 'hot potato.' Canada's provinces and their differing views on online gambling, seem to me to be a microcosm of what's happening in Europe, as the governments of countries are either for against the online practice.
But the bottom line is that online gamblers will always find a way to gamble online, unfortunately many times at the cost of the laws in their respective countries, which is why legalization is the obvious solution.
 | Posted by Anton Johan at 08:21 on 1 November 2010 |
 | This post has been tagged in the following categories: Industry |
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