Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Oh Boy

Ontario is going to look into legalizing online gambling.

"Premier Dalton McGuinty is opening the door to allowing Internet gambling in Ontario.

Paul Godfrey, the new chairman of Ontario Lottery and Gaming, wants the province to get in to Internet gambling instead of watching potential revenues go to other provinces and offshore websites.

Quebec has announced plans to join the British Columbia and Atlantic lottery corporations in allowing online gambling."

With upwards of 17 racetracks, multi-millions in horse race handle and over 40% of the entire country's GDP, this could be a huge blow to horse race handles. As we know, handles are off on live racing by about 40% on harness alone since 2000, without any government promoted online gaming.

4 comments:

The_Knight_Sky said...

So you're concerned at the thought of increased legalized competition in your province. Is that correct?

What are the chances of this actually being passed by the public? Judging from the early comments underneath that article. That's quite a hurdle.

Is there a Canadian province that hosts horse racing which has benefited/deteriorated as a result of legalized online gaming?

Pull the Pocket said...

Hi Knight,

More competition = less horse wagering

I think if they tabled it, it would pass easily. The gvt wants money and people want to bet things over the Internet here.

There is no legal online gaming here today, but two provinces have it in the works.

PTP

Anonymous said...

And.....it is not required to be "passed by the public'...there are no referendums on decisions like these up here in Socialist-Land, unlike some states. Whatever Big Brother decides is good for you is what is enacted.

That Blog Guy said...

More the reason why racing better stop depending on subsidies and make its own product desirable.

Racing has the potential to be a great product. Part of our problem is many people have no faith in it. How can you promote a product you think is crap? If you don't think racing is a product with great potential then step aside and let those who think there is a future lead.

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