Nationwide platform to link gamblers on the go

Lynn Moore and Andrea Woo, Canwest News Service May 14, 2010

B.C. Lottery Corp. is helping to create a nationwide online gambling syndicate that is expected to provide access through mobile devices such as cellphones. The lottery corporation, Loto-Québec and Atlantic Lottery will launch a common platform this fall that will link poker players and other cyber gamblers, according to Bob Rybak, a gambling consultant working with Atlantic Lottery. He expects the remaining provinces to also join. B.C. Lottery said it wouldn't comment on the project until today.

NDP gambling critic Shane Simpson said yesterday it's a step in the wrong direction. "Internet gambling is potentially the most problematic for people who have gambling addictions ... and yet the government is expanding there without offering any other support." He said he's concerned that the new platform appears to be targeting a younger, more technologically savvy demographic who would have constant access to online gambling through mobile devices.

Rybak, who spoke at an Internet gambling conference in Montreal, said Canadians spent an estimated $800 million in 2009 gambling online, with "the vast majority of that money going offshore." Provinces want to divert some of that cash to their own coffers, he said, and a Canada-wide network would offer the advantage of a larger pool of players.