Nova Scotia Government Nixes Online Gambling
The government of Nova Scotia make an announcement this week that the province would not be jumping on the internet gambling bandwagon.
Premier Darrell Dexter said in a public statement that after hearing the opinions of the public and experts on the matter, the government has decided to nix the idea of introducing online gambling.
He said it was not in line with the province's aims of bringing down problem gambling numbers.
"We don't think it's consistent with our goal to try to reduce the harm that is done by gaming," he said in Halifax on Thursday.
The announcement contradicts Finance Minister Graham Steele's opinion expressed in August that Nova Scotia should create its own online gambling site in a bid to protect local gamblers from unregulated sites.
He said at the time that the site would make available resources for problem gamblers so that they could get help with their addiction.
However, Graham Steele has since backtracked on his opinion.
He said on Thursday that after reading the research that went into forming an opinion for the government, he was not sure that a government endorsed gambling site in Nova Scotia was the solution.
Steele said that such a site might attract people who wouldn't think of gambling otherwise, therefore defeating the purpose of the online gambling site in the first place.
Nova Scotia's decision comes in the wake of other provinces taking concrete steps to introduce online gambling in order to increase revenue for their budgets and protect local gamblers.
Ontario and Quebec are on the verge of launching their own sites, while British Columbia did so in the summer.
