Online gambling - what are the odds?
British Columbia has online gambling, it is outlawed in the USA and many rinky-dink nations have embraced it as a way to make money. Premier Dad has decided that Ontario should get into it later this year. After voicing concerns for many years he has come around to the position of his Lottery Czar – Paul Godfrey, who on his very fiirst interview after being appointed, mused about getting into online gambling. So what will make online gamblers switch to the OLG? Nobody knows but as online gamblers have the world to choose from the odds on the OLG site better be more than average. This will be the norm – online offers to entice numbers to the site and better odds will keep them there, although the complexity of the games and the ability of the games to hold gamblers’ attention will be necessary.
The downside is that without investing heavily in programs for problem gamblers this will be a very risky and immoral venture. Once again a demonstration of greed before morality. Perhaps if the proceeds of this new venture were to be dedicated to health care or any other such government program rather than just being pumped into general revenue the public may be more accepting.
3 comments:
Another post which has inspired zero interest from our readers. The other example is Ben's post about the Ombudsman's exposure of LHIN wrongdoings, which has an impact here for obvious reasons.
It's hard to imagine that folks don't have an opinion on government involvement in gambling. Have we all decided that the end justifies the means so we'll just shut up about it?
Is it because we see provincial issues as something we can't influence anyway so why bother?
Or is it just summertime laziness?
This is one reader who would really like to know...
Deb:
I did make a comment, but it got lost in the ether.
Several years ago friend of mine wrote a PhD thesis on problem gambling. She discovered that gambling addiction was (and still is) a concern at Ontario Casinos but the OLG only spends about 1% of its revenues on this, which is clearly not sufficient. One would not expect casino owners to be too concerned about addicted gamblers, except that in the case of the OLG they are the Government, and as such should be concerned about protecting their citizens rather than encouraging addictions, especially when the addictions can ruin the life and finances of the gambler and their family.
If addiction gambling is a problem at casinos, then I imagine it will be an even worse problem with on-line gambling.
My personal view is that the Province should have absolutely no role in on-line gambling, except perhaps to regulate (or even ban) on-line gambling from Ontario on out of province sites.
I think that the Ontario Government should stick to its job of protecting the welfare of its citizens. At the moment the Ontario government does a better job of protecting wildlife, fish and game than it does of protecting people.
I'm surprised the business community has not been up in arms about the increase in legalized gambling in Ontario. When someone gets in trouble with their gambling and need more money there are only so many places they can get it. One way is by stealing from or defrauding their employer. It is happening in these parts with increasing frequency - esp. since the slots in Peterborough are only a short drive away.
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