Canadian governments venturing into online gambling

But, of course, there are also critics with the possibility of introducing different options of online gaming. "It's our governments that are the most addicted to gambling," said Jeff Derevensky, co-founder of the International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High Risk Behaviours at McGill University. "They're addicted to the revenue. There is no great social consciousness. This is a money-making operation, that's quite clear."

Loto-Quebec is the latest body to announce an online poker website, which will launch in the fall.

The lottery corporation expects this new site to counter the thousands of illegal gambling websites that already exist, and forecasts that it will make an estimated us$ 50 million by 2012.

The gambling website will be launched in partnership with the Atlantic and B.C. lottery corporations, both of which already have their own online ventures.

The Atlantic Lottery Corp. has had an online gambling website since 2004, which allows players to purchase lottery tickets and try their luck at bingo. British Columbia offers online poker, letting players bet as much as us$ 9,999 a week in games.

The website by Loto-Quebec will be available throughout the three regions, but it will be up to each corporation to cater it toward their province, according to an Atlantic Lottery spokeswoman.

These big bets will mean big profits for the corporations, said Derevensky, who estimates that the online-gambling industry is worth about us$ 12 billion a year worldwide. Despite this, other provincial lottery corporations are continuing to adopt a wait-and-see policy with online gambling.

"Nothing has been written off forever, but we have no plans to do that," said Kevin Van Egdom, with the Western Canada Lottery Corp., which oversees gambling in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

"We're responsible for offering lottery games and selling lottery products through authorized retailers, where you buy them in person. Each region makes its own decision and Quebec's doesn't play into ours."

Even so, the idea of more government-backed gambling has not been embraced by everyone in Quebec.

Last week, provincial public health directors said the profits from this proposed venture were "minimal" compared to the risk that it could create as many as 100,000 new problem gamblers in Quebec in 10 years. Derevensky said governments have a greater responsibility to the public to curb problem gambling and should set reasonable betting limits and monitor excessive gaming, especially online, where it becomes faceless and issues are harder to spot.