Ontario touts government-run gaming
Excerpts:
- A possible Ponzi scheme involving one of the world's largest online poker sites could be an ace in the hole for Canadian government-run online gaming, according to a spokesman for the Ontario Lottery & Gaming corporation.
If online gaming is run by the government, "people know they're going to get paid," said Tony Bitonti, spokesman for OLG, which plans to launch online games, including poker, in 2012.
- Bitonti estimates 400 to 500 thousand Ontarians have accounts with online gaming companies, which "have no mandate to serve the Ontario public interest and are largely located offshore with virtually no government oversight.
"Ontarians are spending $400 million per year online, none of which goes back into Ontario communities."
- The Financial Action Task Force, the global anti-money laundering force for G20 nations, has told Canada repeatedly to either legalize and regulate online gambling as it is now, or to enforce Canadian laws and shut down these sites, said Duhaime.