A Look at Online Gambling in Ontario, Canada

December 18, 2011 | News Category: Gaming Law

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Ontario, Canada looks as if it will be next on the list of Canadian provinces to move forward with an official online casino site run by the provincial government. British Columbia has already gone this route, and although there may be some glitches for Ontario right now, it does seem as if the province is on track to move forward with its plan.

It had seemed that there would not be any real opposition to this idea, and that the Ontario lawmakers would be able to go ahead with the plan to create and open an online gambling site in their province. Recently, however, there was an election that took place, and while the liberals are still in power in Ontario, they are in a somewhat weaker position than they were in their previous term of office. This has given the more conservative politicians an opening to argue against the online gambling developments for the province of Ontario.

Interestingly, the opposition seemed to be more of an attack on the actual politicians, rather than on online gambling itself. In fact, the main issue that the conservative Tim Houdak took issue with is that of trusting Premier Dalton McGuinty with the income that online gambling would provide.

Tim Houdak said: "Trusting Premier Dalton McGuinty with a new revenue source is like giving the keys to the liquor cabinet to teenagers and going away for the weekend."

While Houdak certainly voiced some concerns directly related to his issues that he has with online gambling, this comment is certainly one that stood out. Houdak also mentioned that there is already online gambling available to the residents of Ontario, and that the online gambling operators that already offer this online gambling are well-established companies, and the competition could be problematic for the province. He questioned how the Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corporation would combat this.

Houdak noted: "There's a product out there that's successful. How is the OLG going to trump that?"

Although there has been opposition to the idea of the online gambling site, plans are moving forward to find a company that can successfully design and operate the online gambling site. Tony Bitonti from the Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corporation said that they are currently looking for a company that can deal with everything from design to financial transfers and all other aspect that are related to both lottery and online casino products. Operators can enter their bids until February 2012, at which time the province will assess which operator is the most suitable for the task.