Newfoundland online gambling site under fire

21.06.2007

The VOCM regional radio station in Newfoundland, Canada carried a report this week on political concerns regarding an online lottery and iBingo site being run by the four provincial government approved Atlantic Lottery Corporation on its Alc.ca website.

Opposition leader Lorraine Michael told the station that she is concerned about the promotion and extent of online gambling offered on the website, and contrasted the provincial government's reduction of VLT's and promotion of responsible gambling whilst allowing the ALC to offer online gambling such as iBingo.

Describing the government's efforts as "counter productive" she expressed alarm that there has been insufficient investigation on the impact and consequences of the site, and questioned whether a risk assessment had been completed on its activity.

The professional looking website offers a number of lottery and bingo related interactive games, downloadable from the site and powered by Boss Media, for which a charge of $3 a game is levied. The games include Hold'em Poker, Mini-Golf, Gong, Memento and Eldorado along with lottery variations and bingo.