Canada has been in the online gambling news recently, both for provinces that have accepted online gambling, and are even offering their own online gambling sites, such as British Columbia, and for those provinces that have rejected online gambling, such as Nova Scotia.
This time, the question was whether Prince Edward Island would accept or reject online gambling as part of a consortium of other Canadian provinces, within the framework of the Atlantic Lottery Corporation. The answer from the Prince Edward Island finance minister, Wes Sheridan, was that Prince Edward Island would not be taking part.
The Atlantic Lottery Corporation already has a website, PlaySphere, that offers online gambling games, however, it does not offer many casino-like games, which includes blackjack and poker, both of which are multi-player games.
When the issue first came up, Mr. Sheridan had been supportive of launching casino-type games through the site, however, he has now explained that he feels that instead of this, there should be measures taken to regulate the online gambling games that currently exist, rather than allow any new online gambling ventures to be started on the island.
The current income for offshore online gambling sites that are used by residents of Prince Edwards Island reaches around Canadian $50 million each year. Mr. Sheridan would be more in favor of finding a way to regulate the existing online gambling rather than allowing new casino-type online gambling to be offered to residents of the island.
Mr. Sheridan said: "Right from the outset this has been all about player protection on Prince Edward Island." He explained further: "Even though we have a very strong working relationship with Atlantic Lottery, we don’t feel that the online site that they would offer is the right solution for Prince Edward Island at this time."
What it seems to be is that Prince Edward Island is not closing themselves off from the idea of online casino gambling, but are simply picking and choosing what they want, and do not feel the need to rush into something simply because other provinces have decided to do so. Their main concern when it comes to online gambling, as Mr. Sheridan explained, is player protection for the island’s residents.
To date, British Columbia has introduced a government sponsored online casino, and both Quebec and Ontario plan to launch online casino sites soon. Nova Scotia is the only province so far that has out and out rejected having online gambling sites, after they had first seemed to be accepting them.
News from Casino People
