The NDP and Finance Minister Graham Steele have made public comments on the issue of more online gambling, and by the looks of it, they are going to steer ahead in the direction of trying to expand online gambling in Nova Scotia.
Finance Minister Graham Steele was on CBC Radio this morning, and took the opportunity to explain why Nova Scotia would be getting into online gambling. Steele stated that thousands of Nova Scotians play at unregulated gambling sites, which is a problem as they do not offer responsible gambling features, and also do not offer problem gamblers the resources they need for getting help that they would otherwise get from a government website.
Steele further added that it would be wrong for the government not to step in. To just leave problem gamblers at the mercy of these illegal, unregulated offshore gambling websites would be irresponsible of the government, as they have a duty to the citizens of Nova Scotia.
While no province has publicly stated it will allow more online gambling, British Columbia has already made the move, launching an online casino style site last month. Ontario announced that they will also be offering online gambling in 2012; their big reason is they want to expand their gambling sector to bring in more revenue to help offset incurring any more provincial debt. Newfoundland and Labrador won’t be jumping on this bandwagon anytime soon as Premier Danny Williams says he doesn’t support what Steele is planning.
