McGuinty Wondering
About Online Gambling
March
5, 2010
Ontario Premiere Dalton
McGuinty is wondering about online gambling these days. With so many
provinces having already come out and legalized online gambling, it is
really a technicality at this point. These provinces realized that the
online gambling industry was a billion dollar a year opportunity that
they could not afford to miss out on. This is money that they can use
for a variety of programs, and as more and more provinces jump on the
band wagon, McGuinty is wondering his next move.
He is thinking that perhaps it might be time to legalize online gambling
in Ontario. It would only make sense that they legalize online gambling
in order to bring in additional revenue, and McGuinty says that he is
aware that this is a very viable option. With their current budget
deficit sitting at $24.7 billion, they know that this is a great way to
bring in some additional funds and attempt to pay that down.
With Loto Quebec putting their numbers for online gambling out there at
somewhere around $50 million expected over the next three years – you
would be hard pressed not to take advantage of that. This kind of influx
of cash from the online gambling industry could help Ontario as their
economic situation is only getting worse instead of better. There were
many within the political arena that were dead set against them ever
bringing in online gambling as they said that it was a bad idea for
their communities. But now some have changed their tune and are now
saying that if people are going to do it anyway they might as well get
their portion of the winnings.
McGuinty says that it seems like something that cannot be “avoided” at
this point and therefore he needs to make a decision one way or the
other. With so much money going offshore it only makes sense to try and
recoup some of it by offering their own version of it.
