Ontario Lottery Online Gambling Venture Delayed
Ontario residents will have to wait a little longer before they can gamble on a provincially-approved online gaming site, after the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation extended the deadline for vendors to submit proposals.
As is the case in some other Canadian provinces, the provincial lottery organisation has been given the responsibility of establishing a safe, secure and Ontario-targeted online gambling site.
February 3, 2012 was the original deadline by which vendors interested in running the operations for Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation were supposed to submit their presentations. However, now the deadline for submitting vendor proposals has been extended, although to when exactly has not yet been confirmed.
One of the reasons for the extension is that only three online gambling submissions were received by Ontario Lottery. These were reportedly from Amaya Gaming, Openbet and GTechG2, all of which are already established in the Canadian online gambling market.
What is more significant is that at least nine other suppliers are interested in submitting their proposals, but were unable to complete their bids by the original deadline. Ontario Lottery is of the opinion that the province should have the widest possible choice in selecting an online gambling service provider, hence the delay.
After the bids are received, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation will have to evaluate each proposal, then short list the more deserving vendors for more intensive and onsite inspection before making a final choice. Therefore, the stated start date for the launch of the online gambling operations of mid 2012 will not be possible. Ontario Lottery officials are now looking towards the end of 2012.
Ontario Lottery Learning from BC Experience
The Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Quebec are already offering online gambling to their residents. British Columbia particularly had a shaky start-up and this is the reason that Ontario Lottery is moving slowly. The chairperson of Ontario Lottery had said that they want to get it right the first time. Therefore they have been studying the British Columbia and Quebec operations and learning from them.
The British Columbia Lottery Corporation launched the web site PlayNow.com under its own operations. The site had to shut down for a short period due to a security breach that led to a leakage of the players' personal information. Even the initial games offered at both the British Columbia and Quebec sites were reportedly amateurish.
Therefore, Ontario Lottery is not interested in running their online gambling web site themselves. They have tendered for a professional company that can provide software, management skills, risk management and payment processing.
