Legal online gambling limits in Canada to increase

Canadian residents of the province British Columbia should be able to increase their weekly online gambling deposits with the state lottery this month. In what's essentially the first instance of legalized gambling in the upper North America, the British Columbia Lottery Corporation will increase the depositing limits of its customers to almost $10,000 (CAD) weekly from the previous $120 and folks will be able to use their credit cards to complete the depositing transactions. Looking for more revenue, the BC lottery is also contemplating launching what would be the first government ran online casino. Adding video poker games, blackjack and other popular casino games to the online gambling accounts of the residents.

Naturally this move is making waves on both sides of the e-gambling dilemma. Supporters of online gambling in the Canadian province point out that residents have long had the chance to play online casinos and even bet on sporting events through unlicensed online casinos and sportsbooks ran offshore. The introduction of the online gambling option in BC would improve the attention paid on problem gamblers while bring some of the money gone offshore to the province's coffers. Almost $24 million were the revenues from online gambling last year in British Columbia with projected revenues from the internet gambling to the province climbing up to $73 million for the 2011/12 period. The opposition claims that this is nothing more than tax on the poor and would help no one, rather increase the number of young gamblers. Regardless of who is right, for now it appears that Canadians would be the first in North America to get access to 100% legal online casino games.

Published on 09/18/2009