Gambling website has merit: N.S. minister

Nova Scotia may launch its own online gambling websiteto protect gaming addicts who are at "the mercy" of unregulated, offshore sites, the province's finance minister says.

Graham Steele defended his government's position to consider online gambling in an interview with the CBC on Wednesday.

He said an official Nova Scotia website would include information to help problem gamblers, unlike unregulated sites.

"They don't care if somebody's got a problem. They don't care that the money is leaving Nova Scotia. There are no 'problem gambling' resources," he said.

Critics have lambasted the NDP government for even considering the idea.

Game Over, a group opposed to video-lottery terminals, says the province would only be giving gambling addicts another place to spend their money.

"It's a shameful source of revenue,"group member Debbie Langille said Tuesday. "There are more social costs than there are for the revenue being brought in."

Criminologist John McMullan, who studies problem gambling in Canada, said the province's own surveys show there's no appetite for online gambling in Nova Scotia.

"So why are we going into that business, when you have no natural market for it, unless you want to stimulate a market?" said McMullan, a professor at Saint Mary's University in Halifax.

"You're not going to capture the money from those people who have already made the decision to gamble offshore. You're going to have to then stimulate your own market internally, get players from within your own jurisdiction to go online and play, who perhaps have never played before."

'Nova Scotians are in it'

But Steele said thousands of Nova Scotians are already gambling online.

"They're spending millions of dollars. So it's not a case of saying, 'Should we be in it or not?' Nova Scotians are in it in a big way, but in an unregulated environment," said Steele.

"For those who say that the government shouldn't be there, I just say I cannot consider it to be responsible to leave problem gamblers to the mercy of illegal, unregulated offshore gambling sites, many of which are believed to be fronts for organized crime."

Steele said prohibitions on gambling don't work any better than bans on alcohol.

British Columbia launched its online gambling site last month, and Quebec and Ontario are planning their own versions. Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams haspromisedtovote against any such move in his province.

A decision on online gambling in Nova Scotia is expected when the government releases its overall gaming strategy this fall.

Atlantic Lottery Corporation has PlaySphere, a website that allows people to wager onsome online games, but not multi-player poker, blackjack and other casino games.