The announcement Tuesday that the Ontario provincial government will enter the online gambling sector in 2012 appears to have triggered renewed interest in the possibilities for the Saskatchewan province.
CBC reports that the provincial government is “very interested” in the idea of online gambling, and quotes the Minister of Gaming, Ken Cheveldayoff, who revealed that the Saskatchewan Gaming Corp., is “cautiously looking at” doing the same thing in order to harvest revenues that would otherwise accrue to offshore online gambling operators.
If Saskatchewan decides to enter the market it will be joining regulatory efforts by other Canadian provinces such as British Columbia, Quebec, the Atlantic provinces and Ontario.
The province already operates two land casinos and owns thousands of video lottery terminals, and the MInister cautioned that Internet gambling would be “…harder to police, it’s harder to monitor, you don’t know who’s on the other end. We want to make sure it’s those that are above 18 years old and those that are responsible gamers that are taking advantage of it.”
Cheveldayoff emphasised that there’s no timeline for the Saskatchewan government’s decision.