Larger Scene Considered For Online Gambling in Canada

The Atlantic Lottery Corporation was founded on Sept. 3, 1976, offering just one game. Now this corporation is one of the leaders in gaming technology, design, financial and security controls. As early as 1990 video lottery went live in New Brunswick and Newfoundland & Labrador. Video lottery went live in 1991 in Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Formed by the governments of the four Atlantic provinces, ALC's first and only game was A-1, a $1 ticket sold in books of five, with one draw every two weeks. Now the company makes millions for the coffers of the provinces. Now they are looking at a possible partnership with the Lotto Quebec for online poker and possible other online gambling activities. The Atlantic Lottery Corporation isn't very sure about details as yet but a spokesperson for the Lottery Tracy Kenney mentioned that they are weighing the pros and cons of a partnership. Alain Cousineau, president of Loto-Quebec said just last week his group wants to partner with the Atlantic provinces and British Columbia in offering online gambling. The Atlantic Lottery Corporation has an interactive service called PlaySphere, that offers five games including, including some poker. The lottery recently increased the weekly online betting limit to $1,000 from $99, which caused a slight uproar in the media and online.
Lottery officials say the prevalence of online gambling pushed the government agencies to get on with giving the public what they want. Cousineau said in a news release last week that both legit and otherwise online gambling, as an industry, grew an average of 30 per cent a year from 2003 to 2008. Apparently as much as fifty million dollars a year is leaving the Atlantic region via as many as two thousand online gambling sites.