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TORONTO - Ontario will consider state-sponsored Internet gambling, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday, days after the provincial gaming agency said it is looking at taking a cut from the online poker business.
"I would want to talk to the minister about that," McGuinty told reporters Tuesday morning. "I think we've got to make a call on that . . . It's not something we can avoid."
On Friday, new Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation chairman Paul Godfrey said the province would consider Internet gambling in the face of slipping revenues.
"When you see what's going on in British Columbia, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces . . . it's something I would explore," Godfrey said on taking the helm at OLG. "Money is going out of this province to other provinces as well as offshore sites."
Ontario's scandal-plagued lottery corporation puts about $1.9 billion into provincial coffers every year.
McGuinty has in the past closed the door on such things as corner-store liquor sales, saying he believes children are better protected under a government monopoly.
He believes there is an ethical difference with Internet gambling, which allows faceless customers to wager thousands of dollars per minute, often in the comfort of their living rooms.
"The difference is we can control whether or not there is corner store sales for beer or wine," McGuinty said Tuesday. "Internet gambling is taking place. It's already there. The issue is what do we want to do in the face of that."
More than one-third of the province's gaming revenue comes from people with a moderate to severe gambling addiction, according to a 2004 study.
"We have problem gambling situations in this province that we're not dealing with," said provincial NDP Leader Andrea Horwath. "At this point I don't think there's any necessity to expand into Internet gambling."
Loto-Quebec recently announced it will launch an online poker site this fall.
It hopes the new site will counter the thousands of illegal gambling websites that already exist and forecasts it will make $50 million by 2012.
The site will be launched in partnership with the Atlantic and B.C. lottery corporations, which already have their own online ventures.
"It's our governments that are the most addicted to gambling," said Dr. Jeff Derevensky, co-founder of the International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High Risk Behaviours at McGill University. "They're addicted to the revenue. There is no great social consciousness. This is a money-making operation, that's quite clear."
Source Vancouver Sun
