Could Canadian site be the first of many?
It may have passed you by, but July 2010 will go down in history as a watershed moment for online casinos. After years of tireless campaigning, Canadian gamers were finally given their heart's desire this month with the launch of PlayNow.com. Believe it or not, the site is the first government-sanctioned online casino in the whole of North America.
At long last, Canadians in the western province of British Columbia have been given the option to legally play casino games such as blackjack over the internet. Now we should point out that some serious technical problems exist on PlayNow.com, prompting the site to go down hours after launching. But these are just temporary glitches. The fact remains that a precedent has been set - North America is now home to a legal online casino.
There are two big reasons why this is good news for British Columbia.
To start with, the site is expected to lead to an explosion in online casino tax revenues for the province. Housing and social development minister Rich Coleman claims that British Columbians spend $100 million (Canadian dollars) (£63 million) on unsanctioned offshore gambling websites, according to the Nanaimo Daily News. Moreover, he estimated there are approximately 2,000 unregulated sites. He added:
"Of these websites, not one is accountable to the residents of British Columbia, not accountable to the players that play on their sites and not accountable to the laws of this country."
Mr Coleman's comments bring us onto the second big reason - not only is the news good for British Columbia, it is also good for gaming fans in the province. No longer do they have to take their chances on unregulated online casino sites. With legal play, they can be confident they'll get the winnings they have earned.
Of course, British online casino players don't have to worry about this. The UK boasts a multitude of secure online casinos; Kerching Casino, for example, is regulated by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission. As for the future, we can only hope that more places follow the example set by online casino sites like Kerching Casino.
Posted by Richard Frost at 15:14 PM
labels: Casino Stories