Online gambling: why provinces are eager to jump in

Speak to your local legislators to let them know the harms that this will bring. Read the full story on CBC web site:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/online-gambling-why-provinces-are-eager-to-jump-in-1.3001852

Walk into nearly any corner store in the country and the sight of a lottery terminal doesn’t cause so much as a ripple, but that wasn’t always so.

Before Parliament changed the Criminal Code in 1969, lotteries were actually illegal in Canada. Once the new rules came in, Quebec quickly threw its hat in the ring and the other provinces soon fell like dominoes.

The move to decriminalize lotteries came with little public discussion or political debate. Much like Hemingway’s line about bankruptcy, the change happened gradually and then suddenly.

Skip ahead to today and Canada’s gambling landscape is once again being quietly refashioned.

‘The large majority of Canadians will indicate that the harms far outweigh the benefits.’
– Robert Williams, Alberta Gambling Research Institute

Consider Ontario, for instance, which saw only four months pass between the provincial gambling regulator issuing a request for proposals to gaming companies interested in running the province’s online operations and the site going live in early January.

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See full article here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/online-gambling-why-provinces-are-eager-to-jump-in-1.3001852