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Mcguinty wants to open a provincial online casino! :S
This is coming from the same Mcguinty who is passing a law for every little tidbit in our society "in the name of our well being and safety"???
So while a 20 year old cant drink half a beer and drive, you cant own a pitbull, spray your lawn for weeds, have a cigarette in your own car while working, you can't go to a legal MMA match, and it's getting harder and harder to enjoy a night on the town thanks to numerous AGCO raids, Mcguinty somehow thinks this is ok??? He is going to make every home, blackberry and iphone into a casino???
Now just to make it clear, i support this idea. But the fact that its coming from mcguinty makes it extremely hypocritical considering his nanny state record.
I think if anything, this move justifies my position that all the above laws, and their fines, are nothing more than cash makers for the government and has little to do with safety. Im sure if talking on your cell phone while driving could make the government $100 million they would fully sanction it!
Unbelievable
| quote: | Online craps coming
Province wants part of $400 million pot wagered on Internet gaming
Ontario’s hoping to hit the jackpot with online gambling.
After years of dwindling attendance at its traditional casinos, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) is moving into Internet gambling to recoup some of the $400 million provincial residents spend annually on offshore gaming sites.
Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said the province will offer a safer and more regulated on-line gambling option which includes age and identity verification software.
“People want this. People enjoy gaming,” Duncan said Tuesday. “I ran Canada’s largest alcohol and drug recovery program for many years and the one thing we always said was that prohibition doesn’t work.”
OLG chairman Paul Godfrey said the organization will review best practices around the world and consult with problem gambling experts before launching the site in early 2012.
“E-commerce is now part of our everyday lives, from online banking to e-media,” Godfrey said. “OLG needs to be current and to evolve with the changing needs of our customers … It is an inevitable step in the ongoing transformation of the OLG.”
The OLG says it will “likely” include a full range of casino-style games and online lottery ticket sales at the start.
Like more traditional venues, players will have to be at least 18 years to buy lottery tickets and a minimum of 19 to play the games.
Duncan said the government is not considering raising the gambling age.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Internet gambling is a game Ontario can’t afford to play.
As the mother of a 17-year-old, she’s concerned about teenagers graduating from video games to online gambling.
”That is a concern I think that many parents would have,” she said. “The reality is the people who will be engaged in Internet gambling are people who are already addicted to gambling as well as young people … why make it worse with Internet gambling?”
Unlike most offshore sites, the OLG will likely require gamblers to set their time and financial limits before each session, and allow them to voluntarily exclude themselves from play for a set period of time.
Pop-ups that warn gamblers they’re playing dangerously are also possible.
Jon Kelly, CEO of the Responsible Gambling Council of Canada, said those types of measures can provide Ontarians with a safer Internet option than offshore sites.
The technology can be used to provide more meaningful brakes on problem gambling than might be found in a casino, he said.
June Cotte, associate professor of marketing at the University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business, studied online versus casino gambling in Las Vegas.
Those gamblers who switched to the Internet were far more likely to play daily and in front of their children.
However, she said the proliferation of gambling sites worldwide is already a reality, and a government-sanctioned site that’s strictly regulated could provide safeguards that are not available elsewhere.
PC MPP Norm Miller said online gaming is an unfortunate reality, so Ontario would need to consider it or risk losing ground to competing jurisdictions.
However, he does not believe the Dalton McGuinty government can successfully implement and oversee the program because it has struggled to bring in eHealth records and eco fees.
“They try to solve their budgetary problems by leaving no stone unturned that they might find a dollar behind, so this is just one other place they’re looking for money,” he said.
Online is still a small portion of the total gambling pot but it is growing exponentially.
Without the move to Internet betting, the OLG cannot compete effectively, Duncan said.
It’s estimated the growth in online gambling is 15% annually with about $1 billion wagered each year from Canada alone and about $30 billion a year around the world.
Numerous jurisdictions, including the Atlantic provinces and B.C., ventured into the online world, although B.C. just put its site on hold over privacy breaches that exposed some gamblers’ personal information and allowed some people to bet with others’ money.
Godfrey, who was brought in to clean up the OLG after insider wins and other scandals, said the organization is giving itself 18 months before implementation to make sure it gets it right.
The OLG is seeking a private partner to run the actual site but will retain responsibility for overall management. |
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| quote: | Originally posted by jester
Everything in this country is illegal. |
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery…" Winston Churchill
"If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law" - Winston Churchill
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