Quebec Set to Offer Online Gambling

The government of the Canadian province of Quebec is set to begin offering online gambling later in 2010, following an announcement by Loto Quebec that it will launch its own gambling website.

The move will see Loto Quebec link up with two other lottery commissions - the British Columbia Lottery Corporation and Atlantic Canada, which represents the four eastern Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island.

Quebec Finance Minister Raymond Bachand said the website would bring up to $50 million into government coffers in the first three years. Click here for a French language site on Quebec online gambling.

But not everybody is happy about the move. The Kahwanake Gaming Commission, located in Mohawk territory in Quebec, accused government of attacking it via its own online gambling plan.

The Commission said that the government had overlooked the opportunities presented to it by a potential partnership with Kahwanake Gaming.

The Loto Quebec website will be based on that already set up by Sweden's lottery corporation Svenska Spel. It will include safety features to prevent underage use and will also cap deposits.

According to reports some C$675 million (US$630 million) was bet online by Canadians in 2008, with estimates that the number will jump to C$1 billion ($930 million) by 2012.