New Brunswick May be Next on the Online Gambling Wagon
As Canadian province after province enters the world of internet gambling, New Brunswick has indicated that it may be the next region to join.
The government has given the Atlantic Lottery Corporation the green light to begin preliminary research into the advantages of introducing online gambling to New Brunswick.
The Communications Director for the Department of Finance in New Brunswick, Marc Belliveau, said: "What has happened over the years because there has been very much growth, a very large amount of growth in online gaming, all governments across Canada have looked at it."
He said that the fact that Quebec had entered this industry was "interesting".
"We'll watch with interest," he said.
Belliveau said that the government requested that the Atlantic Lottery Corporation begin looking into the prospect around six months ago.
"We are one of four partners in the Atlantic Lottery Corp.," he said, "and what we have told them is 'Continue to feed us information on this subject matter.'"
The Corporation has already created gambling sites for Quebec and British Columbia, but did not advance to New Brunswick.
A spokesman for the company, Sarah McBeath said: "Atlantic Corporation had been working with Loto Quebec and British Columbia Lottery Corp on a common offering for online casino products. However, we informed these lotteries in 2010 that we did not have the necessary approvals to move forward at this time."
"As a publicly owned lottery, we are looking at opportunities to keep the more than $74 million currently being spent on illegal, off-shore gaming sites within Atlantic Canada for essential public services."
New Brunswick said that it would monitor the success of the Quebec site and make strategic decisions based on their experience.
