From the Chronicle Herald on Friday, August 20, 2010:
Atlantic Lottery Corp. allows provinces to call their own shots on games of chance, Steele says
Nova Scotia could offer Internet gambling even if its partners in the Atlantic Lottery Corp. don’t follow suit, Finance Minister Graham Steele said Thursday.
Steele was responding to the rejection this week by Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams of online gambling for that province.
Williams told radio station VOCM that he’d vote against the issue when it’s brought to cabinet, and he didn’t think it would garner much support from others around the cabinet table.
Steele said the four Atlantic provinces, which are shareholders in the lottery corporation, don’t all have to agree on which products they offer.
For example, he said, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island were the only two to introduce electronic keno. The NDP ended the game here after taking power last year.
Steele said Nova Scotia’s decision on online gambling will be part of the new gaming strategy under development and slated for release this fall.
Steele said he doesn’t favour bans. He said gambling has a social cost "but then so does alcohol."
"In fact, if you look at the number of people who are addicted to alcohol and seeking treatment, the numbers are far larger than the number of people seeking treatment for gambling, but as a society we find ways of dealing with it," Steele said after Thursday’s cabinet meeting.
"Just outright banning gambling doesn’t strike me in particular as the best approach. We have ways of dealing with problem gambling that can be effective without going to the point of prohibition."
Atlantic Lottery has an online site called PlaySphere, which allows people to buy lottery tickets and play interactive games. It has nothing on the scale of online poker played against others, or casino games like roulette.
There are about 65,000 PlaySphere accounts, corporation spokeswoman Jennifer Dalton said in an email.
She also said there’s an estimated $50 million leaving the region and going to more than 2,000 gambling sites now online. The figure comes from gambling consultant H2 Gambling Capital of England.
Premier Darrell Dexter said it’s hard to know just how much online gambling is growing.
Liberal gaming critic Leo Glavine said he’s personally concerned about the potential addiction problems associated with online gambling. He said the Dexter government should release the socio-economic impact study of gambling it has suppressed before any discussion of expanding gambling happens.
"Let’s not move into the online world without taking a look back here over the past five years and that report, in particular," Glavine said.
The Tories had no comment Thursday other than a caucus spokeswoman saying they await the gaming strategy.
