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The Canadian province of British Columbia, long a hotbed for online gambling house marketing operations, has seemingly begun to embrace online gambling.
The Vancouver Sun reported on Friday that the B.C. government on Thursday rolled out its casino games gambling website, becoming the first sanctioned online casino in North America.
Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman said British Columbians spend $100 million a year on illegal offshore gambling sites and he wants to see that money spent in B.C. instead.
Users can now log on to PlayNow.com and play games in five categories including casino, bingo, sports lottery and games.
Most casino games will be offered while online poker is to be rolled out some time next year.
Only people who live in British Columbia are able to access the site and users must be at least 19. Gamblers will only be able to spend up to just shy of $10,000 per week.
The move by British Columbia gives hope to those living in the United States where New Jersey, Florida and California are each contemplating the legalization of online gambling in order to help boost their respective economies.
Joe Brennan, Jr. of the Interactive Media Entertainment & Gaming Association regarding efforts to legalize online gambling in the state of New Jersey.
“We’ve gotten to this point by making this debate about more than taxes from gaming revenue, which is a bit one-note. Instead, we’ve made a significant case for job creation, capital investment, and the opportunity for New Jersey to become the national and global hub for this industry. And those numbers make this a compelling option for New Jersey legislators to consider.”
Brennan Jr. will likely be monitoring the British Columbia initiative more closely as a means of offering stronger support for his notion.
B.C. Lottery Corporation president Michael Graydon estimated the new online gambling website there will generate as much as $40-million in increased annual revenues. That sum will be on top of the more than $30-million generated each year by the online lottery which started in 2004 on the same website.
Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
