Canada: Loto-Québec to offer online gaming in Fall 2010

Cousineau also declared that the corporation will cooperate fully with the Monitoring Committee set up by the government. In Québec, it is possible to currently access more than 2,000 illegal and unregulated online gaming sites. He stressed that “We will be offering Québecers a choice of entertaining games like poker, various table games and sports betting within a controlled circuit and in a secure environment whose integrity will be beyond question.”

Poker will be offered on a common platform with the British Columbia Lottery Corporation and the Atlantic Lottery Corporation. Hosted in Montréal, the platform will be provided by G2, a Gtech subsidiary.The customer account management software was designed by OpenBet Ltd (known until very recently as Orbis Technology), which will also supply some of the table games. OpenBet Ltd will shortly open its Canadian offices here in Montréal and create some fifteen new jobs

As announced several months ago, Loto-Québec will be implementing a series of prevention and control measures that will be among the industry’s best and most innovative. In regard to this, the Corporation’s president confirmed that Loto-Québec’s online gaming site would be subject to an international responsible gaming expertise.

In 2009, Loto-Québec became the very first lottery-operating corporation in the world to hold World Lottery Association Level 4 certification for its general responsible gaming policy framework. The highest available international certification in the field was granted for a period of four years.