Debate Continues on Ontairo Online Gambling
Posted Aug 12, 2010 03:13:42 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The fiery debate continues over the McGuinty government’s plan to allow online gambling in Ontario starting in 2012.
The ruling Liberals obviously support the move saying it will pump 100-million-dollars a year into the provincial economy within five years.
The opposition however warns it will also feed addictions.
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan and NDP critic Peter Kormos pitched their respective cases on 570’s Jeff Allan Show today and, as expected, they were vastly different.
Kormos argues online gambling is not entertainment and history shows the existing casinos have caused untold amounts of grief to the families of gambling addicts and this will only worsen the problem.
For his part, Duncan maintains the province is currently losing 400-million-dollars to online gaming run by other provinces, private and off-shore operators.
So people here are doing it anyway and we’re losing out.
He says it’s just the evolution of gaming.
He does say they will monitor it closely to ensure it doesn’t hurt other provincial gaming establishments such as casinos.
