Gambling in Canada - No Alberta Decision For Now From NDP Joe Ceci

Gambling in Canada, especially the online kind has been slowly finding its feet in certain provinces. One has only got to look at Ontario, one of the largest regions that has recently had online gambling legalised, albeit taking years for approval.

According to British Columbia's latest financials, their online gaming website brought in $91million. Alberta, with $1.5billion currently flowing to the Alberta Government each year in gaming revenues, are also looking to increase this figure further.

In the earlier part of this year, The Alberta Liquor and Commission sought out companies to see if they could offer a "turn Key" online gaming solution. They stressed that the provincial government was only looking for interested parties, not actually offering out contracts. Spokeswoman for the commission Michelle Hynes-Dawson stated that it was just a request to see what was actually possible and what the province could have available. There was a lot of interest and lots of vendors out there.

No NDP Government Decision For Now

Speaking for Provincial Finance Minister Joe Ceci, his press secretary Carolyn Gregson made clear that at this time online gambling was not their prime focus. The main concern was that of the spending bills currently coming to the legislator. "It's all interim supply right now" she stated, adding that online gambling would be something that would be looked at in more depth over the summer period.

NDP MLA Brian Mason, has already gone on record saying that this is just a crass attempt in an effort to generate more revenue for the province. He claims that this is an effort to exploit those who have addictions and weaknesses so as to make up for lost revenues.

That said, other provinces as well are trying to keep up with Alberta and Ontario, although as can be seen with opposition this will be a long drawn out process. Gambling in Canada is still a contentious topic it won't be an easy road.