Loto Quebec Expands to Online Gambling
In a bid to diversify its product line and enter the growing world of online gaming, the Canadian lottery company Loto Quebec has announced plans to offer its customers online poker and sportsbetting.
In a speech to the Montreal Board of Trade this week, the president of Loto Quebec, Alain Cousineau said that the group will start implementing its plans by the summer of 2010.
Loto Quebec will not be the first lottery group in Canada to offer online gaming services. Five other provinces - British Columbia and the four Atlantic provinces - already run successful online operations.
Cousineau that he would be contacting all five of these provinces in an attempt to collaborate with them and learn from their operations.
Loto Quebec has recognized the fact that online gambling is on the increase across the world, and customers are on the lookout for quick, easily accessible gambling entertainment with maximum convenience.
Since 2003, online gambling has grown 30% per year in Canada and analysts believe that by 2012, online gambling transactions will be in the region of $1 billion a year.
On a global scale, online gambling has grown 300% since 2004 and now enjoys a market worth over $25 billion.
Loto Quebec has already approached the necessary legislative bodies in order to change the laws in the province to allow online gambling.
"The lottery sector has changed greatly over the past forty years," said Cousineau. "Loto Quebec's new products will, therefore, need to incorporate such factors as competition, decision making and skill, in addition to the fun of playing."
"That is a major challenge," he admitted, "but meeting it successfully is critical if we are to maintain our products' competitiveness."
