Online gambling poll for Nova Scotians

provincial government of Nova Scotia in Canada could be thinking about legalising online gambling, according to local media speculation amid reports that a poll is to be conducted to better understand how many residents participate in online gambling activity.

The provincial minister responsible for Nova Scotia’s Gaming Control Act, Michel Samson, told local reporters that the government may eventually regulate online gambling, but the first step is gathering the data.

“We need to better understand how many Nova Scotians are actually participating in online poker and other casino-style games, and how often,” Samson told reporters in Halifax Thursday, noting that online gambling is not currently regulated.

He said the data will help determine whether there is an issue with online gambling in the province, and what the government can do to address it.

The poll will be supervised by the Nova Scotia Provincial Lotteries and Casino Corp., where spokesperson Stacy O’Rourke said: “Without the data, we can’t determine if there are problem gambling issues that need to be addressed.”

It will be organised by the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation, which has commissioned MQO Research for the task, she revealed.