The British Columbia Lottery Corp. (BCLC) is partnering with Manitoba Lotteries to provide online gambling to Manitobans.
"We are pleased to share our expertise with Manitoba to strengthen regulated online gambling in Canada," said Rich Coleman, the minister responsible for BCLC.
BCLC will provide site design, development and testing services and will manage most aspects of Manitoba Lotteries’ website, which is expected to launch in 2013 with casino and poker games.
The move comes nearly two years after BCLC rolled out the first government-sanctioned online casino in North America, PlayNow.com, which is only available to British Columbians.
Coleman told media in the summer of 2010, when he launched casino games on PlayNow.com, that British Columbians spend $100 million annually on more than 2,000 illegal gambling websites.
“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,” he said.
Last week, B.C. lawyers cast doubt over the legality of an expanded social gambling product created by Vancouver gaming company Las Vegas From Home.com Entertainment Inc.
PlayNow.com has existed since 2004, when British Columbians were first able to buy lottery tickets and bet on sporting events online.
Online gambling in North America took another step closer to being legalized April 3 when a New Jersey Senate committee approved a bill that would let Atlantic City casinos take bets from gamblers in other states and even other countries, as long as federal and state authorities agree it is legal.
